XXY:Evolution
by Darknight Squire
Summary: X-Men Evolution-with a slight twist.
1. Chapter 1

X-Men-Evolution, and all related characters belong to Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, Fox Broadcasting, and whoever else is involved. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-go sue whoever makes those awful Adam Sandler movies instead.

"B-A-Y-V-I-L-L-E! GO, Bayville! B-A-Y-V-I-L-L-E! Go Bayville!" cried the Bayville High School cheerleaders as they shook their pom-poms in the air as the first game of the season kicked off.

FLASH! A bright light snapped in front of Deanna Matthews, the head cheerleader. She smiled at the tall, muscular red-haired guy in the football uniform holding the camera. "One for the yearbook?" she asked.

John Grey smiled back; he was chairman of the yearbook committee as well as captain of the football team. "More like for personal use," he replied.

Up in the bleachers, a ponytailed brunette with red sunglasses was sitting next to a blonde with a pageboy haircut, a bored expression on her face. Selene Summers wasn't much of a football fan; the only reason she came was to show support for John-and because her friend Paula wanted to come.

"Mooning over John?" Paula asked.

"Of course not!" Selena replied.

""You're a terrible liar, Selena," her friend giggled. "I don't know why you haven't tried anything; the two of you both live together in that Institute after all. But now that he and Matthews are an item, I'd say your chances are shot."

Selena sighed; Paula's words had more truth than she cared to admit. She was Professor Charlene Xavier's ward, taken from the orphanage at twelve by the Professor when her 'gift' was discovered. Not long after John Grey was brought to the Institute as well, although he still visited his parents and older brother on vacations. They'd gone through junior high school together, and not long ago Selena realized she was developing feelings for him. Yet John never seemed to think of her as anything more than a sister.

Paula spoke again. "Cheer up; there are plenty of guys out there. Besides," she gave a small smile, "Tyron Fukijo thinks you're 'mysterious.'"

"Oh shut up," Selena grumbled, then asked, "Really?"

"Sure does." The blonde girl picked up her purse. "Let me buy you a-," suddenly she felt around inside. "Hey, my pocketbook's gone!"

Selena looked; sure enough there was no pocketbook. Taking a glance at the bleachers, she saw a small, black nailed polished hand reach and grab a different purse lying at a spectator's feet. Behind her ruby-quartz glasses, Selena Summers rolled her eyes. Tonya Tolansky was at it again.

A few feet away, Deanna Matthews felt one of her co-cheerleader tap her shoulder. "Yo, Deanna," the brunette smirked. "Looks like Toady Tonya's lifting purses."

"Really Carina?" Deanna grinned back. "Then let's teach her a lesson."

Underneath the bleachers, Tonya Tolansky was counting out her ill-gotten money; beside her lay several empty pocketbooks. "Oh boy, I hit the jackpot tonight!" she grinned.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Tonya looked up from her counting and saw Deanna Matthews and two other cheerleaders standing right in front of her. "I thought I recognized that smell."

Tonya's jaw clenched; all her life she had a body odor problem plus soap and water irritated her skin. She tried to cover up her scent with perfume, but it never quite worked. "Hey what're you gals doing here?"

"Come to teach you a lesson." Deanna walked closer to Tonya, and grabbed her by collar. Now Tonya cringed; she had powerful legs but was a wimp above the waist. While Deanna and the other cheerleaders were athletic and strong.

Deanna shoved Tonya into a patch of mud face first. "You're a toad, Tolansky," she snickered at the sickly-looking girl. "You belong in the mud."

"Which you wouldn't want to get splattered over those nice clean cheerleader outfits, would you?" Now Tonya, Deanna, and the other two cheerleaders looked and saw Selena Summers leaning back against a stone bleacher support.

Deanna let go of Tonya and stared straight at Selena. "And what do you care for this scuzzbaggette anyway, Shades?"

"Not much," Selena admitted. "But I don't like bullies either."

"Tolansky was stealing money from girls' purses," one of the cheerleaders said.

"And how about we give back the money, and report Tonya to Principal Darkholme."

"Yeah, yeah, what she said," Tonya agreed frantically. Raymond Darkholme would not be pleased that she'd been stealing from purses again, but even detention with him was preferable to getting beat up by three cheerleaders.

"Why don't you and your stupid sunglasses at night just butt out?" Deanna swiped at Selena who deftly dodged, and caught the cheerleader by the wrist. Unperturbed, Deanna brought her left hand up and her long sharp nails scored three lines across Selena's right cheek-before knocking Selena's glasses off.

Instinctively, Selena closed her eyes, and let go of Deanna. Laughing the cheerleader picked up the red sunglasses. "Well, what do we have here?"

"Give them back," Selena said between clenched teeth. _What does John see in her? _"I have an eye condition."

"Oh really?" Deanna sniggered nastily. "Let's see what happens if you open them."

"No!" Selena replied. "Trust me, you won't like it."

"I'll be the judge of that." Deanna's two cheerleaders grabbed Selena's arms while the blonde used her fingers to pry Selena's eyes open. "C'mon, let's see what color your eyes are."

"They're blu-." Selena managed to wrest her neck away from Deanna just as her eyes opened-and were pointed in the direction of a propane tank.

John Grey had just scored a touchdown when all of a sudden he heard a loud BOOM! Glancing at the bleachers, he and his teammates stared at the explosion.

Taking advantage of the crowd's attention on the fire, John reached out with his hands and focused, projecting a telekinetic force field to contain the flames all the while thinking _Professor, are you there? Professor, we need you."_

_I'm here, John._ At the rear seat of a Bentley parked outside the school sat a conservatively dressed fortysomething woman with red hair that she seemed to be reaching _underneath_ the scalp of with her fingers. _Don't worry, I'll handle it. _She pulled at her hair until it all came off, revealing a scalp as bald and shiny as an egg, focusing on the minds closest to the explosion. _Selena and Deanna Matthews, and three others are there as well _Charlene Xavier replied mentally, as she rubbed her head, doing her best to erase the image of red beams escaping from Selena's eyes and replacing false ones inside the cheerleaders' heads.

Finally, after several minutes, she let down her hands and let out a sigh. She could see the fire trucks and ambulances coming, and nodded to the white-haired African American man driving the car. "Everything's alright," she said as she picked up her wig. "Go."

"Are you sure professor?" the driver asked.

"Quite sure, Orion," Charlene Xavier replied. She had just replaced her wig and checked in one of the rear view mirrors to make sure it was firmly in place. "Now go, we have a new student to pick up."

_Okay, as you figured, this is a gender-bender fic. And while the first few chapters were adhere to the first season of XMEvo pretty closely, I do plan to divulge the plot. And no, I'm not writing this to make some comment on the politics of gender or critique of society. I'm doing it because it's FUN! One of the major challenges is 'masculinizing' the x-girls; it's just hard to take female characters and make them seem convincinly masculine-with some exceptions. A handful of characters will still be in their original gender. Like Sabretooth._

_Next chapter, John and Selena meet their new housemate 'Katrina' Wagner,' Principal Raymond Darkholme grills Tonya, and a femme fatale with metal claws comes into the scene. _


	2. Chapter 2

X-Men: Evolution, and all related character belong to Marvel Comics, Stan-Lee, Fox Broadcasting and anyone else who is involved. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-instead sue the idiots who made that Wolverine movie for what they did to Deadpool!

At the Bayville subway station, Charlene Xavier and Orion Munro were waiting at the check point. "Is that Katrina Wagner?" Orion asked as a tall blonde, very German looking girl stepped off.

"No," replied the professor. "That is." She wheeled her chair over to a lone figure wearing a hooded trench coat, with the hood pulled over the face. "Hello Katrina; my name is Charlene Xavier, and this is my personal assistant Orion Monroe." The figure moved as if to offer a hand, and then hesitated. "Come, there's no need to be afraid."

Back at the mansion living room, John was looking over Selena's cheek. "Looks like you and Deanna had quite a catfight," he said, amused.

"Nothing some foundation and blush won't cover," Selena replied. "Sorry about your game being cancelled."

John shrugged. "There'll be other games. The important thing is that no one was hurt."

"That's right." The two teenagers looked to see Orion Munroe step through the front door. "The professor wishes to see you in her study.

"Where is she?" John asked.

Orion gave that small smile to show he knew something they didn't. "She's already waiting for you there."

"Well," Professor Xavier said in an amused voice, "you two had quite a time tonight, didn't you?" She rubbed the side of her head. "It certainly gave me a headache, making the witness thinks a gas leak caused the explosion."

"What do you want form me Professor?" cried Selena. "I mean, I'm packing a bazooka behind each eyeball here!"

"Control, Selena," the professor replied. "That's what you are here to learn. Now on a further note, I'd like you to meet our newest student, Katrina Wagner."

From a shadowy corner of the room came the hooded figure. "Hello," said a German accented voice.

"Come now Katrina, don't be shy. You're among friends," the professor said reassuringly. Slowly two strangely three fingered hands removed a hood to reveal the face of a young girl with pointed ears and gold eyes, and a blue complexion-although with her red shades Selena only noticed the first.

Nervously, Katrina stuck out her hand. Selena reached forward to shake it, and then pulled back the moment they touched. "You've got fur?" she yelled, then blushed when she saw the hurt look on Katrina's face. "

Katrina sighed. "Maybe coming here vas a mistake," she said glumly.

"No, no, I'm sorry." Now Selena's face was as red as her sunglasses. "I was just shocked, that's all."

"There's more than being blue and furry." Katrina put her hands in her pockets and looked down at the floor."

"Yes, indeed," replied the professor. She reached to the top of her head and pulled off her wig. "As you can see, I know something of what it's like to be different."

Katrina's jaw dropped. "You're-bald?"

Xavier nodded. "Since I was sixteen; a side effect of my mutation. Not what I'd prefer, but then the choice was not mine."

Katrina still looked glum. "No vig's going to cover this up," she said as she stepped out of her trench coat. Now everyone but Xavier's eyes widened to see that Katrina's bare feet had two toes and an opposable thumb on the heel, and a long, pointy-ended tail was poking from the seat of her jeans.

"Perhaps, this will help," Xavier said, holding up a small object. "A gift from an old friend named Tony Stark."

Katrina took the object in her hands. "A vatch?"

"Not just any watch," said the professor as she put her wig back on. "Put it on; then press the button on the side."

Katrina did so; suddenly an average black haired girl was standing in Katrina's place. Katrina looked at her hands in astonishment then ran over to the nearest mirror. She stared at her reflection, the awe and delight on her face apparent. At times, Katrina had tried to pass as normal by using her mother's makeup but her fur ruined the effect. "I-I'm normal!"

"Normal is what you are," said Orion, placing a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "This watch just emits a hologram to disguise you."

"Yes." The professor was looking into her compact, making a few adjustments to her wig. "But not because of the watch. It's just to help you blend in, so you won't be scorned by those who may not appreciate your-unique attributes.

Katrina turned back to her reflection, the joy on her face still apparent. "Vhatever you say professor. But-you rule!"

"So, Katrina," Selena asked, hoping the German girl would forget about the way Selena reacted to the sight of her, "is your mutation, merely physical, or-,"

BAMF! Katrina disappeared in a cloud of smoke; then reappeared a few feet away. "What you say about this?" she smiled, showing that she also had fangs.

* * *

At Bayville High School, Principal Raymond Darkholme was sitting at his desk. The door opened, and Tonya Tolansky stepped inside. "You wanted to see me?"

"Sit down." Raymond Darkholme was a tall, well-built man whose square glasses and impeccable suit added to his stern patrician air. As the gangly girl did so, the principal got up from his own chair and opened the window-to relieve himself of stench emanating from Tonya. "Tell me," he said, circling around behind Tonya's chair, "what you know about Selena Summers."

"Oh Summers? She's cool," Tonya said dryly. "I mean, if she hadn't shown up, those cheerleaders woulda stomped me good."

"I think there's more to it." Now Darkholme leaned down and stared at Tonya, straight into the girl's yellow eyes. "Think harder. What about that explosion?"

Tonya tried which wasn't easy; although she was fairly street-smart she wasn't a deep thinker. "Wait I think-that Matthews girl knocked of those shades she' always wearin'-then that propane tank exploded-,"

"I think she caused that explosion," said Darkholme, "and those 'shades' of hers had something to do with it."

"What're you sayin'?"

"I'm saying that he's one of us," Darkholme replied. As he spoke, the principal's skin turned blue, his hair red, his eyes gold, and his clothes morphed into a skintight white pants and tank top. "And I want you to find out more, _understood?"_

"Look, I don't know-I don't really know much about them…."

"Don't think-you aren't good at it." Now Darkholme morphed into a demonic monster, the claws of his left hand digging into Tonya's shoulder. "_JUST DO AS I SAY. UNDERSTOOD?"_

"Yeah yeah," As soon as Darkholme let go Tonya ran out of the office room into the school hallway.

* * *

Selena Summers splash water from the sink basin on her face. "Is it off yet?" she asked Paula.

"Not quite." Selena felt her friend rub a paper towel all over her face. All the while Selena kept her eyes closed, knowing full well what would happen if they opened even a little. "You got to admit, it is kind of funny."

"Right. Funny like a broken crutch." Selena placed her sunglasses back on and opened her eyes. Looking in the mirror, all she saw was herself and everything in the same shade of red she'd seen since she was twelve years old and first put on ruby quartz glasses. The alternative was keeping her eyes closed all the time thus being blind. Yet this morning, when she'd gone done to breakfast John, Mr. Munro, and the professor all looked like they were trying to suppress sniggers and wouldn't tell her why. And it wasn't until she got to school and ran into Paula she found out she was wearing blue blush and green lipstick. "We've got a new student at the Institute, from Germany. And she must have tampered with my makeup." She sighs. "Sometimes I think my life would be easier if I was a guy."

"You know," said Paula as they walked out of the girl's restroom, "I guess that I'm so used to your shades I never thought about what it must be like for you with your eye condition, having to see everything in red all the time. Although it could be worse. You could be completely blind." She stopped and took a sniff. "Or have a major BO problem."

Selena smelled it too: cheap perfume making a vain attempt to mask something that would make the sewers of New York seem pleasant by comparison. Glancing to her left, she saw Tonya Tolansky leaning against the lockers.

"Yo, Summers," Tonya said. "I need to talk to ya. Like, alone."

Selena's shoulders slumped. "Go on, she said to Paula, who trotted off to her next class-a little faster than was allowed in the school hallways. Selena faced the slouching girl. "What is it about, Tonya? I've got Chemistry in less than a minute.

"Just about how you and me," said Tonya as she leaped up on top of the locker with what Selena had to admit was pretty amazing agility, "we ain't like regular people." She lashed out a long, green tongue and lifted Selena's eyeglasses right off of her face.

Selena immediately closed her eyes and wiped away the disgusting saliva from her face. "Yeah, like now we're both slimy."

"All I'm sayin', Selena girl, is that we aren't that different form each other." Tonya threw the sunglasses down. Selena fumbled for them, then after wiping away the slime placed them on her face. "I was wondering if maybe, you could help me out."

Selena let out a short breath, blowing up her bangs. "Maybe I can help," she said, feeling a strange mixture of disgust and pity. Life couldn't have been easy for Tonya if her body odor was something she had no control over yet it was hard not to feel repulsed when you were engulfed in it.

"Great," Tonya smiled, then, snapped her tongue at a fly that happened to be near. "We'll do lunch."

After she leapt away, Selena heard the bell ring. "Oh great," she muttered, she was now late for Chemistry."

* * *

Katrina walked into the room where Charlene Xavier had her wheelchair parked in front of a massive computer complex. The blue furred girl was dressed in a new outfit Orion had given her, black with red shoulders and white gloves-on both her hands and feet. "Vhat's that, professor?"

"Oh this," said Xavier. "This happens to be Cerebro-which is how I discovered you."

"Really? How does it vork?"

"Normal humans have a different brainwave pattern than mutants," Xavier explained, and held up a strange-looking headpiece hooked up to the consol. "This device allows me to use my telepathy to detect mutants-especially when they are using their powers."

"Oh. Well, I just came here to talk-am I really going to be able to go to school vith Selena and John?"

"As soon as we can get the paperwork sorted out-I know this will be a new experience, as you were previously homeschooled."

"_Mutter und Vater _didn't have much choice," said Katrina as she looked down at her cloven feet.

"No need to apologize; from what I've seen they've done a very good job. Although I have to warn you, I'll tolerate that prank you pulled on Selena today, but it would not be wise to do thing like that at school. Prinicpal Darkholme is not known for his sense of humor."

"_Ja__,_ that vas funny," Katrina giggled as she thought about this morning when she teleported into Selena's room and switched her makeup while Selena was in the shower. Then she sobered. "But vhat if-something goes vrong vith my vatch?"

"A possibility," Xavier admitted. "However, my goal here is to teach you how to make the best use of your powers and still provide you with as normal an adolescent experience as possible. And one thing I want you to remember, Katrina, who you are counts for more than your physical appearance."

"Then vhy do you vear vigs?"

"Oh this?" The professor reached up and lifted the wig from her head. "I was about your age when my hair started falling out-and which can be very traumatic for a young teenage girl, so it became a habit. Besides this," and she held up her wig, "and my other hairpieces are especially designed to block telepathy; that way I don't always hear voices inside my head. And to be completely honest," she said as she placed the wig on her lap, "I do have my share of female vanity."

Xavier then placed the headpiece onto her bald head and closed. Suddenly, she jolted. "I think," she said, "That I've found another mutant."

End of chapter two.

_Okay, now that second chapter's up it looks like it will take another before episode one is finished, and I bring in Ms. Logan._

_On another note, I realized that while some code-names can be appropriate for either sex, others aren't, so here are some I worked out:_

_Mystique-Mysterioss_

_Blob-Bulk_

_Storm-Shango(African thunder god)_

_There are some others,but I'd like to hear from you readers, so send in your reviews. And if I don't get any, I won't update!_


	3. Chapter 3

X-Men: Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, and anyone else involved. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-instead sue the people who made those god-awful Transformers movies!

Chapter Three

Selena took her cell phone out of her purse and dialed the mansion. "Hello, Selena," Professor Xavier answered.

"Do you have your wig off?" Selena asked, figuring the bald woman had read her mind.

"No, the call forwarding showed your cell phone number." The amusement in her voice was apparent. "What is this call about?"

"It's-that girl I rescued the other night," Selena said. "You know, what caused the incident?"

"Oh yes, young Miss Tolansky. Cerebro detected her just now; it seems that like us, she is indeed gifted."

"We, she asked me if we could help her, but I'm not sure I want her at the Mansion. To put it bluntly, we'd _really_ need to stock up on air freshener."

"We can't turn anyone away Selena. You know that."

"Yeah, and I really feel bad for the girl, but-,"Selena sighed. "I understand."

Back at the Mansion, Charlene Xavier removed her wig. _Orion, _she thought.

_Yes, Charlene? _Orion Monroe thought back. He was in the garden, using his weather powers to water the plants.

_We have a possible new recruit that I'll need to give you a display for._

* * *

Later that night, Tonya Tolansky approached the gate to the mansion, dressed in green tights and a strange metal hump that seemed to serve no purpose other to make her look more like a toad.

With surprising ease, Tonya leaped up over the gate. "Got past the entrance-check," she said; then looked at the high mansion on the hill. She started to approach it when all of a sudden rain fell-but only on the mansion grounds. "Now this is just plain freaky."

Inside Professor Xavier's study, Orion stands next to the professor dressed blue tights with a long white-lined cape draped over his shoulders. "How's that for a demonstration?" he asks, looking like the very incarnation of the African storm deity from which he took his took his code-name.

"Quite good," replied Xavier, who then leaned closer to the T.V. screen. Security camera placed at various spots in the estate grounds showed the girl making her way to the mansion through the trees, leaping with agility rivaling a squirrel's. "Indeed, this girl is gifted, Shango," the bald woman added. "She could be one of us."

Orion, or Shango, looked more skeptical. "Sometimes, Charlene, I think your good heart blinds even yourself."

Outside, Tonya had finally made it to the building. "Okay, let's see what we have here," she said as she eyed the windows. Seeing one that was slightly ajar, she shot out her tongue_._ The green prehensile organ pushed up the window far enough for Tonya to slip inside. "So far so good," she sniggered.

"Vat are you doing here!" Tonya saw a blue skinned girl with a pointed tail and three fingered hands come into the hallway.

"Who are you?" Tonya asked. "Some kind of ratty ratty plush toy? Or is there some smurf convention in town?"

"I may be all blue and furry," Katrina answered as she held her nose, "but at least I don't reek like an unvashed _dirndl _soaked in perfume."

Enraged, Tonya leapt at Katrina, who teleported out of the way. The German girl looked down at her from the ceiling. "As you say in America-_neener neener neener!"_

"You blue furred freak!" Tonya roared.

* * *

In a different part of the mansion, John and Selena emerged from their rooms own uniforms-both wore blue tights with yellow boot and gloves and a red X adorning the belt buckle and shoulder pads. John's suit had Green stripe up the middle while Selena's had a big yellow X across her chest and back; in place of her usual sunglasses she wore a gold-bordered red visor.

"Took you long enough to get dressed," John quipped. "Deanna doesn't take half as long to get ready on a date."

"Well,_ excuse me _for not being as fast your girlfriend," Selena remarked sarcastically. "May she should give up cheerleading and join the cross country team."

"Okay, okay, jokes aside," John said, "I know you and Deanna don't get along, and she and her co-cheerleaders were wrong to pick on the Tolansky girl like that. But they were just angry at seeing her steal from the other girls' purses…" _Yeah right. Deanna and her pals just wanted to whale on somebody and seeing Tonya lift purses gave them an excuse,_ Selena thought dryly. _And John's such a nice guy he can't see what a bitch that Matthews girl is._ "…and so, please, next time you see her, try to act civil okay?"

"All right," Selena grumbled, then added, "Ask me to be friends with her, and I'll give you an optic blast where the sun don't shine." She grinned to show she wasn't being serious.

"You wouldn't," John piped in a mock falsetto and cupped his hands over his crotch.

Their exchange was interrupted by Professor Xavier speaking to them through telepathy. _Selena! John! Katrina and young Miss Tolansky have entered the Danger Room. _The two looked at each other. "Oh, great," muttered Selena.

* * *

Katrina and Tonya had been going at each other for several minutes, pulling each other hair and clawing with their nails; they had similar agility although Katrina's ability to teleport gave her a big advantage.

BAMF! Suddenly the two girls found themselves inside a large room with the floor and walls all of grey metal. "Vhere are ve?"

"How should I know, wookie girl?" Tonya said and brought her foot hard against Katrina's chin. "You're the one who brought us here!"

Katrina landed against the steel wall. THWACK! _Boy d__oes this__ girl have a mean kick!_ Katrina thought. All of a sudden, various missile launchers buzz saws, laser guns, and coiled tentacles emerged from compartments in the wall. "Vhat the-," Katrina said something in German, "is going on!?"

Selena, Orion, and John rushed to the Danger Room as fast as they could. "You two try to help Katrina and the other girl," Orion said as he stepped into a computer console room, "I'll try to override the automated defenses."

Using his telekinesis John moved the room entrance doors apart, allowing him and Selena to enter. Selena touched the side of her visor, shattering a buzz saw that was about to slice Tonya in two.

One of the tentacles wrapped around Katrina; the German girl teleport out-and in front of a laser gun about to fire. Immediately John cast a TK shield around Katrina, protect her from the blast.

"Oh I get it," Katrina said. "It's a training room. She teleported again to an outlet with several plugs. "If I just pull the plugs-." But instead of shutting down, the machines all went haywires, striking randomly on the four mutants inside the room.

John was hard pressed, using his telekinesis to shield him and the girls from the random chaos awaking all around them. _Mr. Munro! _He thought at the control room.

_I've nearly got it shut down,_ Orion Munro thought back as he was punching several buttons in a quick sequence. _Now, it's done._

All the machines in the Danger room shut down, leaving the room strangely quiet for a second.

Tonya broke the silence. "Forget this, I am out of here!" she yells leaping away at the open door.

She jumped past Xavier, who was wheeling her chair to the Danger Room. "Tonya, wait!" Selena called out after the froglike girl.

"No, Selena. Let her go. The bald woman wheeled her way in. "It seems that young Miss Tolansky is not ready to join us."

"Yeah," said John, using his telekinesis to move away debris. "And in the meantime, we have a lot of cleaning up to do."

Ja." Katrina looked down at her cloven feet. "Because of me." In a puff of smoke, she vanished form the room.

"I go find her," said Selena. "She just needs a girl-to-girl talk."

"Very well, Selena." As Selena stepped out of the room, Professor Xavier put her hands to her scalp. "In the meantime, I'll make sure young Miss Tolansky doesn't tell of what she saw here."

Tonya Tolansky went out of the mansion, as fast as her froglike legs could carry her. Oh boy, she thought, the stuff she'd seen in there was freakier than people accused her of being! She'd nearly made it to the gate when she bumped into a short yet busty woman with long black hair flowing from underneath her cowboy hat and a look in her eyes that said she was as deadly as she was beautiful.

"You going somewhere, sister?" The stranger held up her hands and six eight inch long metal claws emerged from her knuckles.

"No Ms. Logan. Let her go." Sighing, the woman let her claws back into her hands and stepped aside, letting the girl pass.

"Welcome, old friend." Charlene Xavier was guiding her wheelchair through the driveway, her wig back on her head. Behind her walked John and Orion. "You've been missed."

"Where I was, I smelled trouble a brewing around here," Ms. Logan replied, "and so I thought I'd come back sooner rather than later." She looked off where Tonya had gone. "Of course, it might have been just Stink-gal there."

She looked at Orion. "And besides, I just couldn't stay away from you handsome face for long, 'Rion," she said as she walked over to the white haired African.

Orion smiled as he placed an arm around her waist and kissed her. "I missed you too. In fact, I've got a little present waiting for you in my room."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ms. Logan says, and they walked back to the mansion.

* * *

Selena found Katrina perched outside the window of her room, crouched on the roof like a gargoyle statue looking out from a cathedral. "There you are; I've been looking all over the mansion for you."

"Come to chew me out about the trouble I caused?" Katrina sniffed, and Selena could hear the hurt in her voice.

"No I-I just want to talk." Warily, Selena climbed out the window and made her way to beside Katrina. _Oh boy,_ she thought, _it's such a long way down. _"Listen Katrina, about what happened-,"

"I screwed up," Katrina sobbed.

"No-well, yes you did." Now Selena took a long breath. "But-it's okay."

"I almost got you and the others killed!"

"Listen, we all make mistakes," Selena said and placed a hand reassuring on Katrina's shoulder. "Look, those machines are designed to be taken apart, so it won't cost much to replace them. And one time," Selena smiled as she thought back on the memory, "shortly after I came here, I was mowing the grass when I heard a heard tree fall. I stopped and ran to see if there was any damage. There wasn't, but I caused some. You see, I wasn't paying attention, so I tripped on a tree root. My shades flew off and I released an optic blast that wrecked the fountain!"

"Really?" Katrina giggled.

"Yep. And there's more. One time John-," and Selena continued in a story that involved a strip joint and Professor Xavier having to wipe the minds of several strippers and club patrons. "Don't tell John I told you that story though. It still gives him bad dreams."

"I von't," Katrina promised. "Zo-you ztill vant me here?"

"Sure."

"And the vay I look doesn't bother you?"

"Not as long as you don't hassle me about my shades." Now Selena's nails dug into Katrina's shoulder so hard the German winced. "And you better not mess with my makeup again. EVER."

"I understand." Katrina winced as Selena let go and she rubbed her shoulder. "Although-I was in Mr. Munro's room a couple hours ago, and saw a box of cigars. I couldn't resist-,"

"Wait a minute." Now Selena looked puzzled. "Mr. Munro doesn't smoke so why would he-?"

Boom! A tiny explosion sounded from inside, followed by an angry woman snarling, "Who screwed with the cigars 'Rion got for me?"

* * *

Bayville High School that night was dark and quiet. Except for Raymond Darkholme's office.

"I gave you a simple job, to infiltrate the mansion, and you ran away!" the principal yelled at Tonya Tolansky.

"Look, boss man, I blew my shot but that place is insane!" Tonya retorted, then added, "You weren't there; it was like some crazy science fiction movie: buzz saws flying, lasers blasting! I almost got cut in half!"

"That's all you remember?" Tonya nodded nervously. "Useless. Just like you." Darkholme pointed at the door. "Now get out, before I do something that will make you wish you were back there!"

Frightened, the girl ran out of the office.

Raymond Darkholme slammed the door with uncontrolled rage and reverted to his blue skin and red haired form. Turning back to his desk, he saw several metal objects floating just above the desk top-and a tall statuesque woman cloaked in purple and red with long white hair flowing from underneath a red helmet. "You really shouldn't be so hard on the poor girl, Mysterioss," the woman said. "Obviously my dear old friend had wiped her mind."

"Magnetrix," Mysterioss said, doing his best to hold back the fear he felt, "what are you doing here?"

"Why, to check up on you, of course." Inside her helmet, the Mistress of Magnetism smiled playfully. "And on Charlene. Apparently, Cerebro is now operational it seems."

"So Xavier will now find more mutants," Raymond said, "and fill their heads full of her unrealistic ideals."

"Indeed," replied Magnetrix. "Which is why we must find them first."

Now Raymond Darkholme tightened his jaw. He despised this woman for what she had done to his daughter then causing him to be separated from her once and for all. But for now he needed her. "Tell me what you want, Mistress," he forced himself to say, "And I am yours."

* * *

At the Pryde residence in Chicago, Illinois, fourteen year old Kristopher Pryde, know to his family and few friends as 'Kit' was dreaming.

In his dream, he was flying, flying high above the city of Chicago like one of the superheroes in the comic books that he still enjoyed despite his father insisting that he was too old for them. The building stood, towering in the night that from this hieight seemed like pinpricks scattered across the landscape. It had to be a dream but he didn't care. He was flying, he was free.

All off a sudden he felt a hard THUD! Young Kit pried his eyes open, and found himself in his family living room dress in a white tank top and blue boxers.

The stairway light came on, and Kit saw his parents walk down the stairs in their night clothes. "Kit, what's going on?" his mother asked.

"I-don't know," Kit said. "I dremt I was flying, then all of a sudden I woke up-and I was here."

"You must have been sleepwalking again," Kit's mother said as she stroked her son's short brown hair.

"I don't think so," added his father. The family looked up and saw Kit's pillow and bedspread hanging halfway _through_ the ceiling.

"Oh my God," Kit moaned. "What's happening to me?"

End of Chapter 3

_Okay, so the first episode id out of the way. I try not to split them up in later chapters however._

_As I said previously, one of the hard parts of writing this is altering a character's gender and make them still true to character, because a person's gender is such a big part part of what defines who he or she is(how much is nature and how much is social conditioning i leave for others to debate). Kitty Pryde is especially hard to 'masculinize' because she's such a girly-girl. With that in mind, what type of guy do you think 'Kit' Pryde is? _


	4. Chapter 4

X-Men: Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anyone else involved. I'm not making any money, so please don't sue me-instead sue-instead sue the people at Ultimate Marvel for that Ultimatum where they killed most of the X-Men, and later they killed Spider-Man!

Chapter 4

Kit Pryde groaned as he headed for his locker; his least favorite class was next: gym. Kit was small for fourteen, barely even five feet tall yet and not very athletic. And Coach Woolley loved to humiliate him.

"Well well well." Kit gulped as he recognized the voice behind him. Slowly he turned around and saw Tim Andrews and Sal Boone standing right behind him. "Because of you, I can't play football this season, Kit the $#!+," Sal continued.

"I told you, I'm not doing your homework for you," Kit answered back, furious that they were using the Coach's nickname for him. "Don't blame me because you failed Freshman English."

Tim Andrews grabbed Kit by the collar of his shirt. "My dad's an inspector for the board of health," the larger boy said, "and if I don't get my book report done and handed in by Friday, I'll get kicked off the team too. And maybe my dad will shut down your family's deli."

"Forget it."

Tim pulled Kit to his face, so close kit could tell he hadn't brushed this morning. "Listen wimp, you're failing gym, but you still get to be on the academic team. How fair is that?" Before Kit could answer, he shoved Kit into his locker and slammed the door shut.

After the two bullies walked off and the bell rang, Lana Alvers emerged from the girl's restroom. Seeing no-one was around, she removed a spray can from her jacket, and immediately began spraying the lockers, whistling a merry tune, she stopped when she heard a voice cry out, "Let me out of here, you lousy jerks!" Turning around, the spray can fell from her hand as a short, slender boy literally walked _through _the door of one of the lockers she just sprayed. "Did you-did you see what you just did?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Kit hurried away to run for gym-oh how Coach Woolley was going to let him have it!-when Lana grabbed her arm.

"No, you don't get it!" Lana pulled Kit to her. "I'm the only one who can understand any of this!"

Lana let go, and Kit rubbed his arm. Geez this girl was strong! He then found his eyes being drawn to this girl's rather ample bosom poking through her brown halter top and her widely curved hips while she stood with her feet apart and her hands clenched into fists. Suddenly Lana's eye rolled and her pupils disappeared; the entire school shook as if being struck by an earthquake.

Kit closed his eyes and shook his head. "What-what are you?" he asked as Lana stopped, and backed away knocking into the locker behind him.

"What we are!" Lana smiled and stepped closer; Kit found himself staring at her breasts again as if Lana was shoving them into his face. "We're different! People think we're freaks but they're wrong! We're better than that."

"I don't want to be a freak!" Kit yelled fearfully as he turned and ran; Lana tried to grab him but her hand just passed through his shoulder.

As she watched the boy run, Lana called out, "You can run but you can't hide kid, because I'm gonna rock your world."

* * *

"What do you want with Kit?" the plumpish middle-aged woman asked anxiously. She and her husband were standing on the front porch of their home; Charlene Xavier and John Gray were standing in front of them. "Is he in some kind of trouble?"

"No, Mrs. Pryde your son is not in any trouble," Xavier replied smiling. "We just want to talk-about last night." She had been using Cerebro and learned about how the young boy's mutant power had just activated-and another teenager's too, although she didn't get as good a reading on Miss Alvers.

"What do you know about last night, Ma'am?" Mr. Pryde, a fat but tough looking man peered angrily down at the professor. "Our son is not some freak for the likes of you to put on display !"

"Mr. Pryde, I can assure you-."

"Get out of here!" The two Prydes walked back into their house and slammed the door shut.

"Gee, that went well," John muttered.

"They're frightened," said Xavier. She turned her wheelchair back to the car they rented from the airport. "Yet in a way, that's a good sign."

"How so?" John asked as he helped the professor in the driver's side; despite being wheelchair-bound she could still drive a car.

"They are being protective," Xavier explained, "out of love. One thing you must realize John, is that not all parents who learn their children are mutants will take it as well as yours did. " John's father had been a close friend and colleague of the professor's and already new about the X-gene; when his son turned out to be a mutant he immediately called Xavier. "A worse reaction would be if they had rejected their son and tossed him out." The thought of parents acting in such a way saddened Xavier but unfortunately she knew it was all too likely.

They parked outside of Northbrook High School. "This is where young Mr. Pryde attends school; perhaps you should try to meet and try to connect with him."

"I don't know, professor," said John. "Isn't that a little-underhanded?"

"It's not the best option," Xavier admitted with regret, "but we must find an opportunity to help the boy I imagine that, being a teenage boy yourself, you should be able to relate to him."

"This isn't going to be easy," said John as he opened the door.

"You never know," said Xavier. "I'll meet you back at the hotel; you speak to Kit and see where we go from there."

* * *

The motorcycle's engine roared as it carried the man toward his goal-if indeed he could be called a man. He was large, nearly six and a half feet tall with muscles bulging form his torn biker shirt and trench coat, dirty blond hair descending from under his crash helmet. The motorcycle itself looked nearly as feral the man, being banged and scratched with a skull head over the handlebars and a small pole with a ragged Jolly Roger flag over the rear.

After passing a road-sign reading BAYVILLE in large print, the man pulled off to the side. Taking off his helmet, he sniffed into the air. Yeah, she was here all right. He pulled up the corners of his mouth in anticipation, revealing several sharp, jagged teeth. Victor Creed knew he was on the right trail.

Ms. Logan was in the garage, working on her motorcycle. Then she smelled it. _His _smell. She didn't know where he was and how he learned her location, she just knew he was here in Bayville. And just what he'd be doing too. "Sabretooth," she growled.

* * *

"You're almost late for school because you stopped at Burger Bomb this morning, and now you had to get another on the way back home?" Selena Summers rolled her eyes behind her shades. It seemed that Katrina had developed a taste for American fast food and one of the side effects of her mutation was she had an ultra-high metabolism-if she went for twelve hours without eating she'd risk starving to death! _Some girls have all the luck, _Selena thought sullenly.

"Vhat can I say?" Katrina finished her Gut Bomb and wiped the grease from her mouth. "It's an addiction."

Selena had just turned her car into the gate at the Institute when a motorcycle carrying Ms. Logan in her orange and brown uniform came whizzing by. "Vhat vas that all about?" Katrina asked.

"Want to find out?" Selena drove her car up to the mansion garage and got out. "C'mon, port us to our rooms and let's get suited up."

* * *

Why was this happening to him? Kit wondered as he ran through the auditorium. What had he done to deserve this? As if his life wasn't bad enough with bullies like Sal and Tim and Coach Woolley, making life hard for him because he was small for his age. And there were his parents. Kit loved them and he knew they loved him. Yet he couldn't escape the feeling he was a disappointment to his father. Carmen Pryde had in his day been a Northbrook's leading football star and had expectations for Kit. But not only was Kit's physique too small he had next to zero interest in sports of any kind. He liked to read, especially science fiction and fantasy and comics; loved playing Dungeons and Dragons with his few friends who were mostly nerds and geeks like himself; the only thing he liked about football was watching the cheerleaders. One time, his father had some old football buddies over and as they were laughing and drinking beer Kit overheard one of them make a disparaging comment about why such a great lineman like Carmen had gotten such a wimp for a son. Kit's Dad immediately threw him out and apologized to Kit for his cruel remark. Yet he'd make remarks about Kit's choice of pastimes and this morning, when Kit fell through the ceiling, Dad had tried to prevent him from going to school. _What're they going to do? _Kit wondered. _Do they think I'm a freak? Will they kick me out on the streets?_

"I've been where you are." Kit turned around and saw a tall, broad shouldered red haired guy who looked like a junior or senior standing behind him. "You think you're alone, that you've got no one to turn to."

"Who are you?" Kit asked nervously.

"John. John Grey." He stuck out his hand, when Kit didn't shake it he just shrugged. "I'm here to talk."

"Talk? Talk about what?" Kit had to fight to keep from shaking; did this guy have something to do with the girl who caused earthquakes?

"About-this." John held out his hand and several of the theater props for next month's upcoming musical floated in the air. "When I first learned I could do this I was scared. But then I realized that it's a great gift."

"Gift? Gift?" Kit said incredulously. "I'm CURSED! There are sixth graders bigger than me, jocks pick on me because I won't do their homework, I'm flunking gym, I'm a disappointment to my father, and-," now he looked at John, noticing the Bayville High jacket with the varsity letter and several football medals. "I'll bet you're a jock too!"

"Well, I am," John admitted. "But not all jocks are jerks or bull-,"

"You're probably the kind of son my father wants to have!" Kit yelled, not hearing John at all. "And now I walk through walls, which is so-so-girly!"

"I hardly see what's 'girly' about walking through walls," said John, doing his best to be patient. "And at the Institute-."

"Institute?" Kit's eyes went wide. "You're gonna lock me up in someplace aren't you?"

"No we're not-," John began.

"I'm not a freak!" Kit turned and bolted out of the auditorium. _For a non-athlete with short legs, he sure can run fast, _John thought. He could have caught up with Kit but realized that would only scare the boy more. John would have to let him calm down, and call the professor.

He stepped out into the hallway and turned right, only to bump into someone. A tough looking yet pretty girl with an ample chest dressed in grunge style was standing before him.

"Piece of advice bro," the girl said, poking a finger in John's chest. "You stay away from that boy, y'hear?" She looked John straight in the eye, only needing to tilt her head back a little-and John was six feet tall. John stared at Lana as she stormed off-well part of him was staring in anger another was looking over her plump wiggling fanny.

John closed his eyes and shook his head, driving the juvenile thoughts from his mind. _Oh boy do I have my work cut out for me; _he thought glumly then winced as he rubbed his left pectoral. That girl's fingernail was sharp!"

End of Chapter 4

_Okay the fourth chapter's up. Hope you enjoyed it._

_Like I said before, in this fic Sabretooth's still male and his history with _Ms._ Logan has a different element than in canon-something that involved her cutting off something of his although it grew back. And he'd done something to her that _really _fuels her hatred for him._

_Any of the characters whom I'm leaving the same will only be minor or secondary characters; who would you expect them to be? I'm also thinking of bring in some gender-altered versions of characters who weren't in Evo-like a green haired boy with a rather 'magnetic' personality. Tell me what you think in your reviewsand latey a whole lot of people have been snding follows or favorite alerts but no reviews. I hate that!_


	5. Chapter 5

X-Men: Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anyone else involved. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-instead sue all those readers who give favs and update alerts but don't leave reviews!

Chapter 5

The rest of the day went fairly normal. _Normal,_ Kit thought as he got his books out for his last period class. Something he now knew he wasn't and would never be. Would jerks like Lana and that John Grey guy keep hounding him for the rest of his life? Would he keep passing through solid objects? What if somehow got stuck inside a wall or the ground and couldn't get out?

Kit's mind was so scattered he didn't hear someone walking up behind him. He jumped as he felt a tap on his shoulder; usually somebody coming up behind him meant some jock wanted to pound him or stuff him in his locker.

To his relief it was only the girl Lana. "Don't worry; I'm not going to shake anything up. I just want to talk."

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Kit muttered as he slammed his locker door shut.

"You feel sick inside," Lana said, grabbing Kit's shoulder. "You think it'll go away but it won't. All your classmates, even your parents, think you're a freak. You're already a disappointment to your old man; how do you think he's going to deal with this?"

"What do you know about that?" Kit turned and cried angrily.

Lana snorted. "C'mon, I've seen the school trophy case and those pictures of your old man. I've heard from Coach about what a great quarterback he was. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure how he likes having a son who's small and gets stuffed into lockers every day." She took Kit's hand in her's. "C'mon, let me help you."

"How?"

"Meet me outside the gym and I'll explain everything." Lana smiled and Kit felt his face grow hot. Girls usually ignored him; it felt strange to have one actually smile at him. Especially one who was cute in a tough gal sort of way.

From the distance, John was watching and worried. He hadn't advanced with his telepathy far enough to sort out the girl's thoughts from the great sea of voices entering his head yet he sensed she was planning something that could only mean trouble for Kit.

Touching the said of his head, he thought, _Professor, we have a problem. Kit's going off with what I think is that other you picked up on Cerebro._

_Very Well. Suit up, and go after them._

* * *

"Vhere is zhe?" Katrina looked around as they followed Ms. Logan into Bayville; they lost her in the great crowd of traffic. "Ve lost her!"

"Whoa, watch the paint!" Selena cried as the German girl slammed the door. "It's smudge resistant, not scratch resistant!" This car was Selena's pride and joy; she spent most of every hour polishing and cleaning it.

"There!" Katrina pointed at a small profile at the top of a parking garage that could only be Lady Wolverine.

Lady Wolverine stood at the top of the garage, sniffing the air. _He _was here; she could smell and feel it. She turned, and immediately saw Sabretooth's Harley leaped into the air, smashing a piece of the building as it did so. She rolled out of the way and pop out her claws, cursing under her breath. Keeping this under wraps was not going to be easy even if they kept the damage to a minimum-which, knowing Sabretooth was highly unlikely.

Sabretooth brought his bike to a screeching halt and turned to face Lady Wolverine. He took off his helmet and grinned; revealing several sharp canines. "I've missed you doll."

"The feeling ain't mutual bub!" Lady Wolverine growled. She held up her claws. "Remember what I cut off the last time we tangled?"

Sabretooth only tossed back his head and laughed. "It grew back. And I'm gonna stick it into you like I did so many other times." Before he finished speaking, he sent his bike at her and zoomed past, swiping at her with the claws at his fingertips. She simply ducked and swiped at the wheel, slashing the front tire and metal poles holding it to the frame. The bike flipped over and Sabretooth leapt from the seat, landing on his feet with a catlike grace that belied his size.

On the street below, Selena and Katrina screamed as the ruined bike fell toward them. Grabbing Selena, Katrina teleported them up to the roof.

"My car!" Selena cried in anguish. How was she going to explain this to the insurance company?

Meanwhile, Lady Wolverine was standing waiting for Sabretooth to strike. Smash! A car crashed through the ground slamming into her back. Smash. Another car smashed into her as she heard Sabretooth laugh. "Oh, I'm really looking forward to tonight, doll!"

Ms. Logon groaned in pain as she cut her way through the wreckage; she stood up and sees the face of her foe- and former lover. Long dirty blond hair cascading past his shoulders, his face almost catlike.

"What's the matter, 'Lo?" Sabretooth sneered. "No 'I missed you?' Remember how we used to set the nights on fire?"

"That was before I saw you for what you really are, Victor!" Lady Wolverine shouted.

"For what WE are!" Sabretooth roared lust in his voice. "You and I-we are meant to be, 'Lo! You can't deny destiny!"

"Hey, tall dark and ugly!" A red beam shot across the garage, slamming the feral man into a concrete pillar. "I've got your destiny right here!"

Sabretooth backed away from the pillar, to turn and face two teenage girls in blue uniforms-one wearing a red visor the other blue and demon-like. "Well well well," he grinned. "Looks like we'll make this a foursome!"

BAMF! Katrina teleported nest to Sabretooth and tried to grapple with him, only for him to grab her and pinned her to the ground.

"Gaya!" Lady Wolverine leaped onto Sabretooth's, and plunged her claws seep into his flesh. Sabretooth grabbed Ms. Logan by the throat and slammed her in the ground next to Katrina. "This is going to be so much fun," he grins in lecherous anticipation.

Selena sent another optic blast, straight at Sabretooth's chest. The force was so strong; it sent the feral mutant flying back straight into an elevator. Blasting again, Selena cut the elevator cable, sending Sabretooth plummeting down several feet. Somehow though, Sabretooth's words sounded through the garage. "This ain't over, doll!"

Selena rushed over to help Ms. Logan and Katrina. "Who vas that guy?" Katrina asked.

"Sabretooth," Selena said as she helped Katrina to her feet. "He and Ms. Logan-well, it's complicated."

"Nothin' complicated about it," said Ms. Logan as she dusted herself of. "He raped me."

"Gott en Himmell!" Katrina cried as she crossed herself, amazed that anyone, even someone as tough and hardened as Ms. Logan the Lady Wolverine, could be so casual about it. "Vould he have-?" she cringed at the very thought.

"Probably." Ms. Logan took out a cigar and lit it. After taking a few puffs, she added, "Thanks for the help but next time stay out of it. You don't want to see something like what I gave him right afterward."

"Vhat did zhe do?" Katrina whispered to Selena.

"She gave him a Lorena Bobbitt."

* * *

It had been a long day for the Prydes; they were glad that strange woman and teenage boy were gone. But there was still the other thing they needed to deal with.

"What are we going to do?" Theresa Pryde asked. "What if-what if Kit keeps just passing through objects?"

"You shouldn't have let him go to school," her husband replied. He glanced over at the refridgerator, at the numerous papers stuck by magnets with A+'s on them. Worry filled him as he wondered what would happen if Kit's-whatever Kit's problem was-showed up at school. God, would reporters be diving in on their home tonight? Would they take Kit off to a lab and run experiments on him?

Suddenly the phone rang. Mrs. Pryde ran and answered.

"Mrs. Pryde," said the voice over the phone, "this is Charlene Xavier. I'm afraid you son is trouble this time and he needs you at school."

"What!" Theresa called out. Holding the phone, she said to her husband, "It's that woman again."

"Tell her to go away!" he roared back.

"Cameron, just listen!" She grabbed her husband by the neck and pulled him to the earpiece.

"I have to tell you," Charlene Xavier said over the phone, "Kit's gone off with a girl who's a mutant like himself. She's going to get him into trouble; she's convinced him that he's all alone and that no one understands. You need to convince him that she's wrong. They're at the school gym. Please, Mr. and Mrs. Pryde; your son needs you, before he does something he'll regret."

* * *

Kit met Lana right outside the school gym. "What is it you wanted to show me?"

"That you have to admit what you've been denying," Lana said. She felt the boy was only half listening, that half his mind was staring at her breasts. Which was okay with her, she was a well-endowed girl after all. Besides, this kid was kind of cute for a short guy. "That we are outsiders. That there IS something different about us." She lifted his chin, and stared straight into his eyes. "Don't fret it. _Embrace_ it. Way I see it fate dealt us winning cards."

"This-isn't making any sense."

"That's why I'm here," Lana smiled. "To help you. To light your path and the first step is in that office. All you gotta do is phase through the door and open it to let me in."

"O-okay." Kit said, wondering what Lana wanted in that office. Letting out a deep breath, he stepped up to the door-and walked right through it.

"I did it!" he shouted as he saw he was inside the office. He turned and opened the door to see Lana smiling. "Did you see it Lana? I did it."

"You sure did kid," Lana said as she shut the door. "How do you feel?"

"Amazing!" Kit said.

Lana walked over to the desk. "Now, let's take a look at those test answers."

"What!" Kit couldn't believe what he just heard.

"I've got plenty of kids lined up waiting to buy them." Lana's grin turned malicious. "Including those two that stuffed you into your locker."

"You're-you're using me to cheat!"

"What? Kit, what has playing by the rules ever gotten you? Aren't you tired of being bullied all the time? Instead of jocks stuffing you into lockers and flushing your head down the toilet, wouldn't you rather have them eating out of your hand, paying you so they can pass in order to play?"

"This-this isn't right!" Kit said.

"These tests are the establishment's way of holding us down!" Lana shot back. She had several of the answer sheets in her hand, and she shook them at Kit. "I'm just trying to even the score, and make a profit while I do it!"

All a sudden, the answer sheets flew out of Lana's hand and hung in mid-air. "The only score you're getting, girl, is an F!" Both Kit and Lana looked to see John Grey standing in the doorway wearing his uniform; he'd opened the door.

"And how you going to stop me, Red?" Lana growled, clenching her hands into fists. Aiming them at John, she unleashed a powerful earthquake, causing the roof to crash down toward John.

Quick as lightning, John brought up his hands, holding up the debris with a TK field.

"What-what are you doing!" Kit yelled at Lana.

"We're getting out of here!" Lana grabbed Kit by the arm and ran out the door.

"Kit!" John called, doing his best to hold up the debris. He was doing his best but the beams and cement blocks were heavy! "Kit, if you go with her you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

"Kit!" Kit looked and saw his parents run down the hallway. "Kit Please. Get away from that girl!" his mother cried out.

"Son, please!" Kit's father shouted. "Son, I'm sorry about how I acted this morning. Please Kit; I know I'm not perfect, but please come here!"

"Forget them!" Lana sad, Pulling on Kit's arm. "They're just confusing you!"

"No!" Kit pulled, and his arm phased through Lana's hand. He rushed out to his parents, his arm held out wide.

"That's how it is?" Lana screamed. "Then I'm bringing this house down!" She closed her eyes and the tremors shook even harder; John felt himself groan as he tried to hold the building intact.

"Kit!" he cried. "I can't hold for much longer! Get your folks out of here!"

Kit grabbed both his parents' hands. "C'mon, Mom, Dad." The three ran out, debris falling around-and through-them until they were outside the building. As soon as they were safe, the entire gym structure collapsed.

"Oh my," said Kit's mother. "That boy-." Suddenly she stopped to see a smiling John emerge from the wreckage. "How-how did you-?"

"As I let the building collapse, I put a force field around myself." John said. John let out a long breath. "Boy that took a lot out of me."

Kit walked over to John. "I guess what you said earlier, about not all jocks being jerks," he said. "Looks like you're right."

"Don't sweat it," John smiled. "Judging by your experience, I can't blame you for feeling that way." The red haired boy listened, and heard sirens going off. "I think we better get out of here though."

* * *

Lana looked on as she saw the police and fire trucks arrive at the scene. She had to get out of this place, and quick.

"Looks like your chances at this school are ruined." Turning around, Lana saw a tall man in a three piece suit emerge from behind the shed.

"Who are you?"

"You're new advisor," Raymond Darkholme said as his features melted into those of Mysterioss." I can make arrangements to have transferred to Bayville High School in New York. I'm part f an organization that can find talants like yours quite useful-Ms. Avalanche."

Back at the Pryde residence, both John and Xavier were holding their fingers to their heads; their eyes closed tight.

Finally they opened their eyes. "Well," said Xavier as she placed her wig back on her head, "we've managed to erase any memory of you from every possible witness who could have seen you. Everyone will think the earthquake was just a freak occurrence."

Sitting a few feet away, Kit and his parents were engaged in long conversation. "Why-why didn't you tell us you were having trouble with bullies?"

"I-couldn't bear to look at you Dad, and see you disappointed in me."

"Disappointed?" Mr. Pryde sighed. "Kit, you're my son. I mean-okay, maybe I had some expectations of you that didn't go as planned, and I don't care for those role playing games you like so much. But-I've always been proud of your grades, and I'd be far more disappointed if you were like those two who stuffed you into your locker this morning." His bearded face gave a sad smile. "Especially since-I used to be that kind of kid."

"You? Dad?"

"Yes Kit. I'm not proud of it either." He put a reassuring hand around his son's shoulder. "And Kit, about this-Institute-I really think you should go."

"Really Dad?"

"Really. Just promise you call and e-mail us."

"Sure thing."

Charlene Xavier wheeled her chair over to where the Prydes were sitting. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear you. And I must say-welcome, Kit."

"Thanks professor. When do I leave?"

"It'll take some time to have you transferred," sad Xavier, "and I must warn you, you will see some strange and bizarre things for which you may not be ready."

"I wasn't ready for _this _to happen," Kit said as he phased a hand through his chair.

"None of us are." Xavier kept her face calm and still as she wondered how Kit would act when he saw Katrina.

* * *

At a small house in Caldecott Mississippi, a blind woman was cleaning a bedroom. While the task may have been difficult for most blind people to do unaided it was not for Irene Adler. Although blind from birth, her mutant powers of being able to foresee probability enabled her to perform tasks beyond that of most blind people. Like cleaning her foster son's room.

She had lifted the mattress of his bed so she could change the sheets, when she found several magazines stashed underneath. Upon touching them, she immediately realized what they were: the sort of magazines any fifteen year boy would hide underneath his bed.

She shook her head. She had foreseen how the boy's own mutant powers would turn out, and had done everything she could to prepare him for the kind of life he would have no choice but to live. Yet despite everything Irene couldn't stop the adolescent hormones that were coursing through his body.

_Rogue, Rogue,_ she thought sadly, _if you keep looking at these, you will only be torturing yourself._

End of Chapter 5

_Yes, I've kept Irene Adler female; it's just as hard for me to imagine her male as a female Sabretooth._

_Next chapter, a lonely Goth boy meets up with a blonde cheerleader named Kodi Robbins wanting to dance with him. And instead of spraks flying, something falls when they kiss._


	6. Chapter 6

X-Men: Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anybody else involved. No money is being made from there use here, so don't sue me-go sue Microsoft or some other Mega Corporation.

Chapter 6

Rogue stood out alone on the balcony overlooking the swamp from the bar. The bar owner was also principal of the school and every year hosted the homecoming party-although no alcohol was allowed of course. He'd come to the party alone; in truth that's how he'd always been. He was quiet and reserved by nature, also his foster mother Irene was so overprotective she'd worry every time he stepped out of the house. Lately though he'd been wishing he could get closer to people. Especially girls. It was funny; mostly he considered them annoying yet lately he'd been finding his eyes drawn to the fairer sex more and more. Especially certain-parts.

For the past couple of months he'd been sneaking magazines into his bedroom, magazines that showed women in various states of undress. That had been easy enough to do since Irene was blind. He'd also been listening more to other guys' conversations in the gym locker. Most of what he'd heard he knew was lies and tall tales, but still-.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw three cheerleaders standing together and whispering. His shoulders slumped; why did people have to whisper behind his back? Okay, so he dressed in long sleeved shirts all the time even in the summer-which could be torture in Mississippi if you weren't used to it-and long black duster jackets and his skin was pale because he seldom went out in the sun. And there was a white stripe running through his longish brown hair. Did mean they had to stare and whisper? Maybe coming here was a mistake.

He'd just turned to leave when he saw a blond, buxom girl in a cheerleader uniform standing right in front of him. "Can ah help ya?"

"Ah was wondering," the girl asked, "ya want to dance?"

Rogue was taken aback; this girl wanted to dance with him? "Ah'm not really much of a dancer," he said clumsily.

"That's okay." Kodi Anne Robbins answered. She and her squad mates had seen Rogue come here, standing off from the rest of the homecoming party and wondering about him. She was only doing this on a dare yet Kodi actually thought he was cute in a Johnny Cash kind of way. Most of her fellow cheerleaders thought he was creepy and a couple were convinced he must be gay. Kodi was now certain they were wrong about the latter; she felt his eyes being drawn to her bosom. Not that she minded; Kodi had always been the kind of girl who liked attention. "You want to?"

"Okay." The two of them stepped out among the dancing couples. Rogue awkwardly put his left hand on Kodi's waist and she took his right.

They danced, a little awkwardly at first but then as Rogue felt himself grow surer of himself the two moved more gracefully. It felt good, he thought, to be out here on the floor dancing with a beautiful girl, not to be standing apart from the crow to be with them, to be a part of them.

"Ah got ta ask ya," Kodi said, "why does everyone call ya Rogue? Don't you have a real name?"

"Ah do," Rogue admitted, "it's just-,"

"Aw c'mon, ya can tell meh." Rogue whispered into her ear, and Kodi giggled. She then saw Rogue's face tighten, and she sobered. "Ah'm sorry. Ah promise, Ah won't tell anyone."

"Ya won't?"

"Cross mah heart." Now Kodi smiled, and Rogue relaxed; she had a really beautiful smile.

"Okay, mah turn." Rogue looked Kodi square in the eyes. "How come you're named Kodi?"

"Oh." Kodi's smile twitched. "Daddy wanted a boy and planned to name him Cody but when Ah turned out to be a girl-oh don't get me wrong Ah love him and all. Two years later mah baby brother was born and Mama insisted on turnabout so they named him Leslie. Probably the reason he gets into fights all the time," she laughed.

"Oh." This was a new experience for Rogue, dancing and talking with a girl; just enjoying her company. And he liked it.

Kodi was enjoying it too. She'd been right about this guy; he wasn't anti-social or stuck up he was shy. One of her squad-mates walked up to her and whispered, "Okay, ya got him to dance. But remember, ya've only finished half the dare." Kodi knew what she had to do next. But she didn't mind; she realized that she _wanted_ to do this.

She planted her lips firmly onto his and thrust her tongue straight into his mouth. Rogue was shocked but found himself answering back. It felt so good to have Kodi's warm red lips on his and to have their tongues caressing, to feel her soft tender flesh….

And the next moment Rogue's life changed forever.

* * *

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters said gifted youngsters were watching as Orion and Ms. Logan were giving a demonstration on infiltration which ended with the clawed woman demolishing the Danger Room.

"Ms. Logan, stop!" Charlene Xavier call inside her head. "We can't afford any more at the moment."

The Canadian woman simply smirked as she placed a hand on her left hip and looked up at the deck. "Hey, when I give a demo Charlene, I _really _give a demo."

"Does she mean as in demonstration, or demolish?" Selena muttered, wondering why she had to watch a demonstration she had done herself nearly a dozen times. "What's the freaking point?"

"The point, young lady," replied Orion, "was to help you learn to detect the defects in sophisticated security systems."

"That's right, darlin'," said Ms. Logan, "and I'd say ours needs some work. "She entered the deck from the elevator, ignoring Katrina as she hung upside down by her tail from the ceiling and eating popcorn. With her feet. "The vents were easily breached, and could do with some electric fencing or poison gas installed." Everyone in the deck stared at her. "All right, knockout gas."

"You mean it's like this all the time here?" Kit asked. He'd arrived at the institute yesterday and so far everything seemed like it came out of his favorite books or movies. Even Katrina's appearance fascinated him; it was most like having a drow under the roof. "This is like a James Bond movie!"

"Wait'll you've actually been through a session yourself," Selena said. "Some of the stuff Ms. Logan puts us through is too tough for Marine boot camp!"

"Don't vorry, Kit," Katrina disappeared in a puff of smoke and materialized right beside him. "Ve'll vatch your back." She held her bag out-still by her foot. "Popcorn?"

"Uh, no." As much as he liked Katrina, the thought of eating something she'd touched with her feet repulsed him. "Say, you want to play Dungeons & Dragons?"

"Sure!" Kit had introduced her to the fantasy role-playing game, and already the German girl was hooked. "Vhich of us gets to be Dungeon Master tonight?"

Suddenly the door to the deck opened and Charlene Xavier wheeled her chair in. Her head was bare and her wig was in her lap which meant one thing here in the lower levels: she had been at Cerebro.

"X-Men," she said, "I have an assignment for you, and since it is not a school night, I feel that it might be a good way for Katrina and Kit to gain some field experience."

"What is it professor?" asked John.

"Cerebro has detected a new mutant," the bald woman said. "In Caldecott Mississippi."

* * *

Rogue and the rest of the Homecoming guests just stared at Kodi's limp, unconscious body lying down on the floor. Rogue didn't know what happened; one moment he was kissing her the next he felt a sudden rush of energy into his body-and Kodi was on the floor.

One of Kodi's fellow cheerleaders went to her side and took her pulse. "She's okay," she said then looked at Rogue. "What _are _you? What did you do to her?"

"Ah-Ah don't know!" Rogue back away from the crowd that was forming in front of him. Images were flashing in his head-no, memories. Memories that weren't his.

One boy stepped ahead of the others. "She's my cousin, you creepy freak!" He swung at Rogue, who dodged-although he hadn't been allowed to participate in sports Irene had allowed Rogue to take kickboxing lessons and they served him well now-He kicked out at the guy's legs and grabbed his face.

And now Kodi's cousin fell to the floor.

"You are a freak!" one of the cheerleaders cried out. The tension in the air thickens as Rogue slowly backs to the door. Holding out his hands.

"No look, y'all got it all wrong. Ah' don't know what happened here!" But it was plain by the look on their faces the others-his classmates and acquaintances, people he'd known all his life even if he'd never been close to any-they had no interest in listening.

His heart sank as he neared the door and he saw the owner standing beside it. But instead of blocking him, the man just opened the door. "Go, run kid," he said, more than a little urgency in his voice.

Swallowing his pride, Rogue does as he says. Now more memories are filling his head as fear gripped him. He had no idea where he was going; he just knew he wanted to go home. But where was home? "What am Ah?" he said as he ran. "Who am I?"

End of Chapter 6

_Oh boy. Rogue as a guy is really going to bring some intresting depth to this story. Especially since a lot of what's going through his head is going make his masculinity feel threatened._

_And yeah, a change of gender does involve some change in personality for the characters, some major some minor. Selena's less of a stiff and more of a snark than Scott; Ms. Logan is less gruff, and Kit's reaction to Katrina's appearrance is more positive due to his intrests in sci-fi and fantasy-which will result in the first major plot divergance from canon Evo._

_On a side note, there are some excellent GB pic of X-Men characters on DeviantArt. I especially like timberloo's computer generated pics. Although is it just me or are the Stepford Cuckoos creepier as guys?_


	7. Chapter 7

X-men Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anyone else involved. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-I'm so broke you'd have to be out of your mind to do so.

Chapter 7

The plane went down at the runway and, screeching to a halt, turned in to a stop at a limousine patiently waiting. The plane's door opened as the stairway watched onto it, revealing a stern looking Raymond Darkholme.

Descending down the staircase Raymond opened the limo's door and stepped inside, sitting down next to the older blind woman. "You made good time, Raymond."

"Our mysterious founder has a number of resources," said Raymond as he reverted to Mysterioss. He took her hand in his, leaned over, and kissed her. "You look as lovely as ever Irene."

"Liar," she says, blushing a little. Her face gets serious. "You know why I called you here."

"What happened?" Raymond demanded. "I left the boy in your care because I thought he was safe."

"He went to a school dance," Irene said. "And his mutant power manifested-as he was kissing a girl." She knows, because she had a vision, just as the incident was happening. Irene

"Adsorbing her memories and life energy," muttered Raymond. "Wonderful." He now glared at Irene angrily. "We find him; hide him here for most of five years, and in five minutes….it all falls apart. How could you let it happen, Irene! Why did you allow him to go?"

"He would have snuck out anyway; in the past several months he's become more willful. And when I was changing his sheets yesterday," she reached into her purse and pulled out a magazine, "I found this and several others."

Raymond thumbed through the skin mag, a raising of the left eyebrow his only expression. "What does that have to do with this? We cannot afford to lose the boy Irene. Especially not to Charlene Xavier. He will be a great asset to our cause."

"He is not a weapon, Raymond!" Irene braced herself; even though she loved him she knew full well what he was capable of. "He is a teenage boy, with a teenage boy's hormones coursing through him. I did the best I could yet he really needed you here. He is your-,"

"You don't have to tell me what he is," Raymond snapped yet held his temper. He loved this woman and simply could not strike at her, even when she made him angry. In all the twenty years they have been together despite often being away, sometimes for years, only twice had he strayed. One was the waitress in Georgia; the second was that she-demon whose pheromones had made it impossible for him to resist. And both trysts had born fruit. "You know what he means to our cause. And what do you see of my other-,"

"I see nothing of your daughter, Raymond," Irene replied. "I cannot switch it on and off at a whim; the vision comes when it comes."

"We can't allow Xavier to get to him first," Mysterioss said quietly. "The boy possesses the potential for limitless power. You can see the future Irene. Tell me, where will he go?"

Irene replied simply, "Home. Or where he _thinks_ is home."

* * *

He'd been running around Caldecott for hours, his mind a blur of memories that kept swimming through his head. What was going on? _Where am Ah? _Rogue wondered. _WHO_ _am Ah?_

Stopping, he found himself fin front of a small house. _Home?_

Rogue blinked and saw a balding, middle aged man step out, his arms held open wide. _Dad? _Rogue rushed up to the man, only to see him fade as he approached the door. He turned the knob. Locked. Without thinking, Rogue reached up and found the key in the gutter. Unlocking the door, he stepped inside before wondering how he knew it was there.

What was going on with him?

"All right professor," said Selena as she punched a few more buttons, "I logged our flight plan in with the FAA." Right next to her Katrina was sitting at the co-pilot seat, ecstasy on her blue face. She'd been training on the Flight simulator for the X-Jet for the past two weeks and now was getting a hand in flying it.

Behind them the rest of the X-Men were seated in their uniforms, Kit sitting right next to John. The red-haired boy saw Kit squirming. "Nervous?"

"First time on a plane," Kit said. He'd gotten some level of control over his phasing ability yet it still caught him by surprise at times. What if he fell through the plane's floor?

"Just concentrate on staying solid and you'll be fine," John said and smiled. Kit sighed in relief; most of his experience with jocks was with the kind who liked to flush his head in the toilet or stuff him into his locker. Yet John Grey was not like any of them; if anything he was becoming kind of the big brother Kit never had.

"Say," John continued, "I've noticed the way you've been looking at Katrina. Why don't you ask her out?"

"Huh?" Kit felt his face turning red. "Me? But I-I've never been on a dd-date before!"

_Gotta start sometime,_ John replied telepathically so no one would overhear. _Besides, what's the worst that could happen?_

Kit looked back at Katrina in the seat. She had a great figure, and her blue complexion, pointed ears and tail only made her seem exotic to him. Her face was pretty too even though he couldn't see it at the moment and she had a great sense of humor. _I'll think about it," _he replied. _After we get back._

_Better do more than think about it._

From the pilot seat, Selena said, "Professor, we're clear for landing."

"Good," replied the professor. After they landed, they settled into a rented car with Ms. Logan behind the wheel.

"Where too, Charlie?" the Canadian woman asked.

"The hospital," said Xavier as she pulled off her wig and placed her fingers on her bald head. "The girl is the key to finding the boy."

* * *

Rogue sat on the bed in the middle of the room; everything felt right yet wrong at the same time. Looking through a scrapbook, he saw photos of cheerleading tryouts, family vacations, beauty pageants, shopping trips to Jackson. Looking at the dresser, he saw a collection of Barbie dolls and MLP figurines; and recalled in this room slumber parties, pillow fights, trying on makeup for the first time…..

_What am I thinking! _Rogue shouted in his head. _I'm a guy! I'M A GUY! _Looking in the mirror, he saw he still had Kodi's lipstick on his mouth. Wiping it off with his hand, he looked at his reflection again. What was happening to him?

Bang! Rogue turned and saw a short, voluptuous woman with long black hair dressed in orange and black tights and a black pointed mask had kicked down the door. "Who are ya!" he shouted. "What do y'all want?"

"You, boy," the woman snarled as she unleashed six metal claws from the knuckles of her hands. She leapt into the air at Rogue, who dodged, causing her to crash and destroy wardrobe behind Rogue. "Stand still and make it quick, you're dealing with the X-Men now!"

"X-Men?" Rouge grabbed a piece of broken wardrobe and gripped it in both hands. "Who are you people!" he shouted. "What the $^% is going on! What do you want?"

"Like I said," Lady Wolverine twisted to face Rogue, "we want YOU, Goth boy!" She lunged at Rogue again, and Rogue brought the wardrobe piece smack against her face, and lashed out with his foot. With an 'OOF!' Lady Wolverine went down on her face.

Rogue dropped the piece and ran out the room; all he could think of was to run. He had to get out of here and quick.

He ran out the back door and into the garden, using all his energy to climb over the fence.

Looking over his shoulder for a second, he saw a white haired black man emerge from the door. "A strike of lightning should be sufficient!" the man yelled as he raised his right hand to the sky. Frantically, Rogue leaped over the fence. BOOM! An explosion sounded. A lightning bolt? Rogue wondered. _WTF is happening?_

John had gone into Kodi's hospital room disguised as a surgeon in order to help the professor probe the comatose girl's mind, hoping they could learn where the boy might be. It hadn't been easy, since the boy's mind was confused and frightened, forcing them to split into teams: Storm and the Professor, John and Selena, and Lady Wolverine with the two newest pupils Katrina and Kit. Lady Wolverine led the two through an alleyway, sniffing about.

"Excuse me," said Kit, "but you've never met this guy before; how'd you know what he smells like?"

"I may not know his scent specifically," said Lady Wolverine, "but I can smell fear and confusion, and according to Charlie this guy's got it in spades. Now don't bother me while I'm trying to find him, Imp."

"It's Shadow," Kit muttered under his breath. Okay so may 'Imp' wasn't as bad as some of the things the jocks at his old school had called him but it was bad enough. "Is it just me or does Ms. Logan creep you out too?" he asked Katrina.

"Ja, a little," the German girl replied. She turned and smiled at the boy. "Don't take the 'Imp' thing personal, she calls everyone some nickname. She calls me 'elf,' Selena 'Shades,' and John 'Red.'"

"Oh. Well Katrina, I was just wondering if maybe you'd like to-." Kit never got to finish what he wanted to say, for Lady Wolverine stopped abruptly and sniffed hard into the air.

"You got a scent?" Katrina asked.

"Yeah. I smell fear all right," the Canadian woman said. "C'mon, let's get moving!"

Kit sighed with disappointment as he followed after Katrina and Lady Wolverine. _Guess I'll just have to save it for later._

Rogue grunted as he landed on the ground, narrowly escaping the lightning bolt or explosion or whatever it was the strange white-haired black man had caused. _What's going on? What's happening to me? _He wondered for the forgotten-to-count-how-many-times time.

"Rogue!" Please, it's me Irene!" Rogue looked and saw the blind woman who'd raised him since he was ten standing in the alleyway. "Please, try to remember!"

"Irene!" Rogue ran over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, not directly touching her skin. "Irene, what the freakin' heck is goin' on? Mah head's all messed up, Ah've got people chasing after me, and Ah'm thinkin' these #%&#^ #^#^&&# !%&# girly thoughts!"

"Don't worry my dear," Irene said as she took her foster son's arms off her by the wrists-careful to make sure she touched his sleeves-, "the police are on their way. The X-Men will not want a confrontation-."

"The X-men!" Rogue recalled what the woman in the room had said. "Who are these-X-Men? Tell me!"

"Mutant hunters." Irene took a pair of leather biker gloves from her purse, perfectly sized to fit Rogue's hands. "Here, put these on."

Rogue put one glove over his left hand when saw _her_ coming. "Oh no!" he shouted as he turned and ran. That woman and these two others-one looked like some strange blue she-demon, the other a small boy barely more than twelve-were coming down the alley. It was _him _they were after, he realized. Not Irene. Irene had been the closest thing to a mother he ever had; no reason to put her in danger on his account.

"That's him!" Lady Wolverine shouted, ignoring the blind woman holding the glove. "After him!"

"No vait!" Katrina teleported in front of Lady Wolverine. "For some reason, he seems frightened of you."

"She has a point, Ms. Logan," added Kit as he caught up, barely holding his breath. "Maybe you should like you know, hang back?"

Lady Wolverine ponder for a moment then nodded. "Agreed. Elf, you go talk to her. But don't mess it up!"

"Ja, Frau Logan!"

"And put on your best face too," she added with a grin. "No sense in scaring that kid more than he already is." Katrina nodded, and taping her wristwatch instantly became Katrina Wagner, normal looking German exchange-student at Bayville High School. "And keep an eye on the Imp!"

"Hey!" Kit replied in outrage, forgetting what Katrina told him earlier.

"Don't vorry, he's in gut hands!" Katrina answered back.

"What is this, pick on Kit day?" Kit mumbled under his breath.

Lady Wolverine simply rolled her eyes behind her mask. "Kids."

Rogue looked around the backyard garden, trying to catch his breath for a second. Where they still after him?

BAMF! Rogue turned at the sound, to see a girl who looked like she might be close to his age, sitting in the tire swing of the tree. "Guten Tag, mien friend!" she said in a cheerful, German accented voice.

"Who are you!" Rogue demanded. "What do you want?"

BAMF! The girl disappeared and reappeared in front of Rogue. "A friend," she said. "And don't vorry, ve're here to help you."

"Help me?"

"Ja." She looked up right into Rogue's. "Believe, me, I know vhat it's like. To feel like you're all alone, that there's no place you belong. Like you have to hide all the time."

"How would you know?" snapped Rogue, his macho pride making him put on a mask of bravado.

"Cos I'm like you," Katrina said soothingly.

"Yeah," said Kit as he phased through the fence. "We're all like you."

"You!" Rogue shouted as he recognized the boy. "You're one of them! The ones with that clawed gal! The X-Men!" Rage boiled up in Rogue as he grabbed Katrina by the wrist-and saw the holographic image flicker, reveling the blue demon-girl he had seen earlier.

"But ve're not here to hurt you-," Katrina's words were cut off as Rogue grabbed her face-with his ungloved hand.

"No!" Kit rushed at Rogue, but the taller boy was at an adrenaline high as Katrina's energy flowed into him. He kicked out at Kit, sending the other boy sailing through the air before landing on his back.

BAMF! All of a sudden Rogue disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving Katrina's limp body to fall to the ground.

* * *

BAMF! Rogue found himself inside a structure roughly the size of a tool shed but made of stone. Looking around, he saw a bunch of names and number inscribed on the wall. "Was ist dieser Ort?" he cried out. "Wo bin ich? He stopped, closed his eyes, and shook his head. After opening them again he said in his usual Southern-accented American-English, "How did Ah get here? And _when_ did Ah learn to speak $^$$^& $^$ German?"

He looked again at the plaques on the wall. There were underneath the names were the numbers of years. "They're-birth and death years," he realized. He stepped outside the open door and looked around at the various tombstones. "Ah'm in a cemetery.

"Now how did Ah get here?" he wondered. BAMF! Suddenly Rogue was in a different part of the cemetery. "How did Ah?" BAMF! Now he was in the in a different part again. BAMF!

"Wha-!" Rogue found himself high up in the air-and falling! "No! he cried, and all of a sudden BAMF! And he was standing on the ground.

_How could Ah do that?_ He wondered. He looked down at his hand-the ungloved one. _That-that girl,_ he realized. _She could pop in and out-and when Ah touched her with mah bare hand-_and now a new rush of strange and unfamiliar memories rushed into Rogue's head.

* * *

Shango drove the car with Charlene Xavier in the back seat. The bald woman had taken off her wig and was trying to probe for Rogue.

"Anything?" Shango asked.

Xavier shook her head. "No. I can't sense him right now."

Shango parked the car by the curb where Lady Wolverine was standing. "Ms. Logan," said Xavier as she rolled down the window. "What are you doing here. Where are Katrina and Kit?"

"About five gardens back," Ms. Logan replied. "We found the boy there; for some reason I spooked him. Katrina's trying to reason with him.

_Professor! _Kit Pryde's thoughts screamed into Charlene Xavier's head. _Professor, Katrina's been hurt! The boy with the white stripe in his hair-he touch her and-then he disappeared and she's unconscious!_

"It's the boy," said Xavier. "He touched Katrina and absorbed her power."

"This is my fault!" Lady Wolverine said angrily, unsheathing her claws. "I should never have left her alone with the Imp!"

"Calm down, Ms. Logan," said Xavier. "Now I think I may be able to locate him." She reached out, concentrating on Katrina's thought patterns. And found them. "He's at a cemetery."

"What do we do?" asked Shango.

"I'll contact John and Selena," said Xavier, "and tell them to meet up with us there. Afterwards, when we get there you go out and join up with them."

"I'm coming with you," said Ms. Logan.

"No, Ms. Logan. As you said, you frighten him," Xavier explained. "Go back to Katrina and Kit, and meet with us later."

Lady Wolverine grit her teeth. "All right," she agreed reluctantly. "Can't leave the Imp alone for too long with the Elf."

* * *

A shadowy figure skulked the cemetery where Rogue was leaning back against a tree, staring at his was feeling these new memories inside his head. Of walking through a high mountain forest-in Bavaria, he realized- both hands being held by a kind looking middle aged couple. Of the same couple looking on proudly inside a remote cavern with a handful of others while a Catholic priest gave a first Holy Communion. Of being chased by a mob of angry villagers with pitchforks and dogs, just before teleporting for the first time. Of crying in the arms of the couple and being patted gently on the back by the same priest.

_These aren't my memories,_ Rogue realized. _They're that girl's. Ah've never been to Germany, heck Ah've never left Mississippi. Ah ain't Catholic, and-AH-DON'T-CRY!_

Rogue felt his anger boiling up again as he thought what this meant. Did this mean he'd have to live like this forever, to always be apart from everyone, to never touch anyone else again? To never touch a _girl_ again? He felt tears welling up and he fought them back. _C'mon, _he said to himself, _You're Rogue. You're strong; you're tough; you don't need anyone. AND YOU AIN'T A SISSY, YOU-DON'T-CRY!_

"Hey." A red haired boy was standing before him, dressed in tights with a green stripe up the middle.

"Who are you?" Rogue balled his hands into fists; if this guy was one of those X-Men, he was more than ready to fight. "Do Ah know you?" Then realization dawned on him. "You're John Grey!" he cried out. "You're one of the X-Men!"

John sighed. _This guy's scared, _he realized, _try to calm him down. _"If you know who I am," he said as calmly as he could, "then you know I don't mean you any harm." He held out his hand and using his telekinesis floated out a silver cylinder to Rogue.

Rogue took the device in his right hand and looked at it quizzically. "What's this?"

"A communication device," John said. "We all carry them. Any time you need to talk to one of us-,"

Rogue actually found himself starting to trust this guy. He leaned forward, looked behind John and saw _him. _The white haired black man who caused the explosion or lightning bolt or whatever. "YOU!" her cried, directly at Shango.

"Please, list-," John's words were cut off as Rogue belted him in the jaw with his gloved left hand. Turning Rogue ran back into the mausoleum, hoping he could hide inside.

"John!" Selena cried as she ran to him.

"Am al right-no." John held his hand to his mouth, and pulling away saw blood on his palm. "Ah cut ma tongue!" he said, his speech thickened by the wound; he hadn't had time to raise a force field. "Tha guy got a mean left hook!"

* * *

"C'mon, Katrina," pleaded Kit as he held her hand and felt her wrist for a pulse. She found one; it was faint but steady. "Please, please wake out of it. C'mon, Katrina, please." The boy sighed and looked down. "And to think, I was going to ask you to-,"

"How is she?" Kit looked and saw Lady Wolverine standing behind them.

"Oh Ms. Logan." Kit sighed in relief; he was afraid the family that owned this house was back from wherever they'd gone. "It's Katrina, that boy drained her-,"

"Yeah I know; I was there when you mind-told it to the professor." The tough woman picked up the unconscious girl and walked out. "C'mon, we got to get her back to the X-Jet for the Prof to look over later."

As soon as she was cradled into Ms. Logan's arm however, Katrina's eye flickered open. "Vha-vhat happened?"

"Katrina!" Kit grabbed Katrina in as close to an embrace as he could manage, what with her in Ms. Logan's arms and all. "Oh Katrina, thank goodness you're all right!"

"Can you stand?" Lady Wolverine asked.

"I-I think so," Katrina said. The older woman lowered her down, and Katrina stood, wobbling a little. "Okay, I'm okay."

"That boy we're trying to find," began Lady Wolverine, "the Professor and the others found him at a cemetery. Can you port us there?"

Katrina shook her head. "I'm still a little voozy," she said, "and besides, I have to know vhere I'm going?"

Lady Wolverine grunted in annoyance. "Fine. We'll have to go on foot." Without another word she sprinted off, leaving Kit and Katrina to follow after her."

* * *

Rogue thumped his head with his gloved hand. _What was Ah thinkin'? _he thought to himself. _Now they've only got me trapped in here._

He looked up and saw a hole inside the mausoleum's ceiling. _Maybe Ah can find a way out through there. _Yet before he could step onto the stone structure in the center, the brunette with the red visor jumped through the roof.

"You!" she said as she walked up to Rogue, knocking over the stone vases, "Thought you could get away from us, didn't you? Well the X-Men don't leave loose ends."

Rogue backed away from the girl; pride warring with fear as he tried to decide wherever to fight or run. Fear won out as he neared the door and bolted through.

"Hey!" Now Rogue saw the girl again, right outside the entrance. "Will you please just…?"

"Get away from me!" Rogue screamed, pushing the girl away. Selena staggered back several feet and fell backwards, landing in a mud puddle. The force of the fall knocked off her visor, sending an optic blast straight for the nearby power lines.

"You hurt her!" Rogue turned and saw an angry John Grey coming right toward him. "I tried, I really did, but some people just won't be helped!"

"No!" Rogue turned and ran all vestiges of his pride gone as he just wanted to get away. Yet as he ran, his foot caught a tree root and he tripped.

"You man, what is it?" Rogue looked up and saw Shango standing over him, his hand outstretched. "Please, let us help you?"

"Stay away from me!" Rogue grabbed Shango's hand by the wrist-with his ungloved hand. The same flow of energy he'd felt before grabbed Rogue, only much more powerful and energizing than either time before.

Shango felt his own energy flow out of him, his body going limp. Before Rogue let go, a snapped power line landed between them. BOOM! The explosion sent them both flying into the air. Shango landed into a nearby pond, while Rogue flew even higher into the air. So much power. The sky began to darken and thunder rolled Rogue stopped in mid-air, hovering with a crazed and wild look on his face.

"John!" Selena called. "John, Shango's in that pond! If the lightning hits he'll be electrocuted!"

John lifted Shango out with his telekinesis, then quickly through a TK force field around Rogue. "Can't-hold on-for long," he grunted.

"You have to!" Selena cried. "He has Shango's power but not his self-control! If he cut's loose, this whole town becomes a disaster area!"

Thunder and lightning kept striking at the force field, making John grit his jaw tighter. He couldn't hold on for much longer he knew; but he couldn't let go either.

"Vhat's happening?" Selena looked to see Lady Wolverine, Katrina, and Kit arrive.

"That guy absorbed Shango's powers and now he's a human time bomb!" Selena said. "John's got him in a force field but he won't be able to keep him in it for long!"

"I think-I know vhat to do," Katrina said. "John, vhen I teleport, you let go. Got it?" John gritted, but nodded.

Katrina removed her gloves. "Okay, John-NOW!" BAMF! Katrina port out, then reappeared right behind Rogue and touched his forehead with her three-fingered hands. _Think, Katrina, _she said to herself. _Think where you vant to go-,"_

BAMF! Rogue disappeared, leaving Katrina standing up in the air-to be lowered down by John's TK.

Kit rushed up to the German girl. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine-just-a little tired."

"What were you thinking kid?" Lady Wolverine snarled. "Now that boy's god knows where, with 'Rion's powers that he can't control!"

"I don't-I don't think so." Now everyone turned to see Shango get on his feet. "I'm all right, just-tired." Looking up at the sky, Shango raised his hands and the storm disappeared.

Walking back to the car, they found Professor Xavier in the back seat, rubbing her head. "Can you find him, Professor?" Selena asked.

Charlene Xavier opened her eyes and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I cannot." She looked at Katrina. "Where you thinking about sending her someplace?"

"Ja, to this broad empty field I saw just before we landed. Only," Katrina rubbed the back of her head. "I'm afraid I don't remember vhere it is."

Xavier put her wig back on her head. "I'm afraid he's out of range for me right now," she said. "We'll have to go back to Bayville and hopefully I'll be able to track him with Cerebro." She took out a compact and made sure her wig was arranged properly. "I also sensed another's presence."

Lady Wolverine sniffed into the air. "Yeah. Mysterioss."

"Who's this-Mysterioss?" Katrina asked.

"A mutant who can change his shape," said Selena. "We've had odds with him in the past; it's a good bet he was somehow manipulating that poor guy."

"He can chage his appearance, but not his scent," Lady Wolverine growled. Despite what she knew Charlene and the others would say, Lady Wolverine vowed in her mind that if she ever got his hands on Mysterioss he would envy what she'd done to Sabretooth.

* * *

Back at the Xavier Institute, Katrina was standing in her room-on the ceiling. Hearing the door open, she looked and saw Kit enter. "Is it all right if I come in?"

"Ja." Katrina ported from the ceiling and reappeared sitting on her bed.

"Listen, I just want to talk," Kit said. "About what happen down south-it's not your fault."

"How not?" Katrina asked. "I lost him!"

"True, but he was going to cause a lot of major damage," Kit added. "You had to get him away."

"Ja, but now he's out there," Katrina replied, "as the professor said, as much a danger to himself as to everyone else."

"Well, don't beat yourself up over it." Kit sat down on the bed next to Katrina. "And besides, I'm here cause I've been wanting to ask you," he went on, a little nervously, "there's this sci-fi and anime convention going on in town a week from now, and well, I think it be more fun-if I was with a pretty girl like you."

"Are you asking me on a-date?" Katrina said then added, "You really think I'm pretty?"

"Sure," Kit said. "Look, you're talking to a guy who's been reading fantasy fiction and playing Dungeons and Dragons since he was ten years old. What with the pointy ears and blue complexion and even the tail, you're practically every D&D geek's fantasy come to life!"

"Oh." Now Katrina blushed; she'd never had a boy talk to her like this. True, some had looked her way since coming to Bayville, but that was a holographic illusion they were seeing. Kit knew the truth about her, yet he still want to go out with her. "So you really don't mind the vay I look?"

"Does my being short bother you?"

"No." Katrina glanced over at her wardrobe. "Vhat do you vear at this sort of thing?"

"That's the best part," Kit said. "Lots of people come to stuff like this in costume. You won't even need that holo-watch!"

* * *

Several miles away in Boston, young Emmett Frost walked into the door of his father's study. "You wanted to speak to me, Father?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Winston Frost behind his desk. "Please, sit down."

Emmett did, wondering what this was all about. He wasn't close to his father-to either of his parents to tell the truth-so why had had he been summoned for this private chat?

"Emmett," said Winston, "as you likely know, I'm not going to be around forever. True I've still got a good many years ahead of me, and I realize now is the time for me to start preparing for the inevitable. SO I'll be short and straight: I want _you_ to be the heir to the Frost Pharmaceutical company and family fortune."

Emmett stirred; he hadn't expected this. "I thought Adrian would inherit. After all, he's four years older than me."

"True. However," Winston went on, "Adrian is-well, too self-absorbed and short sighted. He sees what he wants now, yet rarely thinks about how to preserve it for the future or about the later repercussions of his actions. And I doubt you will mention Cordell."

Emmitt shrugged, he actually agreed with his father on that. His younger brother was a party boy, Paris Hilton with a Y chromosome, who only thought about fast cars, faster girls, wild parties, and had caused the Frosts enough expenses to impoverish several less well to do families.

But there was something else he wanted to know. "If I become your heir," he said, "will I get to see Crystal again?"

Winston lowered his head, turning his eyes away from his son. "Not-immediately."

"What do you mean, not immediately?" Emmitt's sister was the only one in the family Emmitt really cared for more than was dutiful; especially in the last few years when she was becoming increasingly moody and depressed. But at the Frost New Year's Eve party several months ago, with several guests from Boston's wealthiest and most influential families, all the TVs in the household-and there were a great many-came on, showing Crystal and at least five other guests' daughters on top of Winston and Hazel's bed, making out in a lesbian orgy. The six were found later in the bedroom, naked and high on crack. The humiliation Winston felt was so great, he had Crystal sent away, to a place where she could be treated for her drug problem-or so he told the rest of the family.

"Listen Emmett," Winston went on, "I realize you've always been close to your sister, but please, you must understand she has a serious drug problem. She is undergoing intensive treatment, and not allowed to have guests."

"Look me in the eye and say that."

"Listen boy-."

"No!" Standing up, Emmett reached across the desk, grabbed his father by the collar, and pulled him to his face. "You listen, Father! Tell me why I can't-," Suddenly Emmett felt his head ache as an image flashed into his head-an image of his sister being strapped to a table, of men and women in surgical garb taking scalpels and operating- "You're going to have _that_ done to her?"

"Listen, boy, your sister has disgraced our family." Winston pulled himself away from his son, and smooth out his shirt. "I had to-how do you know that?"

"I don't know-and I don't care." Emmett spat into his father's face. "Like Cordell's never disgraced you. Why don't you have him locked away and-?"

"Cordell at least has kept his disgraces private," Winston regained his air of composure. "And boy-,"

"Don't 'boy' me!" Emmett roared. He wasn't worried about anyone hearing him-Winston Frost had a lot of conversations he'd wanted 'private' and had his study thoroughly sound proofed. "To hell with your company, to hell with your fortune, to hell with this family! And-," He swung his right fist across the desk, striking Winston square in the face, "to hell with you!" The force of the blow was so hard; the pharmaceutical magnate hit the wall behind him and slumped to the floor, lying very still.

Emmett Frost just stared at the hand he'd hit his father with. It was completely transparent. He so his other hand was too. Rolling back his sleeves and unbuttoning his shirt-he seemed to have no feeling in his fingers or palms-he saw that his entire body had become transparent and hard as if he were now made of glass-or diamond.

Then Emmett stared at his father and gasped. The tycoon simply lay on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, not moving or seemingly breathing. Alarm filled Emmett as he realized what he's just done.

He had just killed his father.

* * *

"Welcome to Bayville High School," Raymond Darkholme said as he handed the class schedule to the covered up boy with the white stripe in his hair. "I'm sure you'll be happy here-and safe."

"Safe maybe," the boy mumbled under his breath as he took the paper into his gloved hands.

"How are you feeling?" Raymond asked.

"Ah don't know," Rogue sighed. "Groggy, bits and pieces still jumbling around in my mind."

"I'm certain I'll be able to help you with that," smiled the principal.

"Thanks," Rogue said dully. "Can Ah go now?"

"Certainly." Raymond let the boy out of his office and closed the door. _He looks so much like his mother._

"That's quite a boy there," said a Cajun accented voice. Raymond Darkholme turned to find a tall, shapely brunette wearing a brown duster jacket leaning on a metal bo staff twirling a playing card with her left hand.

"Who are you, and how did you get into my office?" Darkholme demanded to know.

"Boss woman sent me," she replied. "Maggie's got some business to take care off up in Boston, so she went me for the info," the Cajun woman smirked, "Mysterioss."

Darkholme reverted to his Mysterioss form. "The boy indeed is powerful," he said. There was something unnerving about this woman's eyes; they were black with red irises. "Now tell me who you are."

The woman held up the card she was flipping; it glowed with a pinkish light then faded. "Call me-Gambette."

End of Chapter Seven

_All right, writing this chapter was definitely a challenge because I had to have Rogue acting frightened but dealing with it the way a guy normally would-by lashing out and punching, then trying to run. Like most guys, male Rogue is more defensive about his sexual identity than a girl would be; but it actually helps to keep him from losing his sense of who he is._

_As you can see with 'Emmett,' I will be bringing in characters into this story that were not in regular Evo. I will be including his story along with the events of 'Mutant Crush' in the next chapter; which side will he end up joining? And if you readers have any suggestion for other gender-bent characters I'd love to here them._

_As I mentioned, 'Mutant Crush' is next. Kit and Katrina gon on there date, and she bears some of those remories rogue absorbed to him. And while being massively overweight is really bad if you're a guy, how many of you would agree it's even worse if you are a girl?_


	8. Chapter 8

X-Men Evolution and all related characters are the property of Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and whoever else is involved. I' don't own this characters and not making any money so please don't sue me-go sue Josh Wheedon for all the $%$^&%&%#^& he's done to the X-Men comics!

Chapter Eight

The mingling of the screams of the crowds with the roar of the engines was deafening; yet Raymond Darkholme sat among the spectators ignoring him, looking out with his binoculars. Normally he would prefer to be at an opera or symphony orchestra yet he wasn't here for entertainment. This was business.

Several feet away sat Ms. Logan. Normally this sort of thing was just what she'd go for on a Saturday night but tonight she was on _duty_. She and Selena Summers had been assigned to come to this monster truck rally to check out a new mutant Charlene had detected with Cerebro: a girl named Frieda Dukes, who apparently been working as a side show. _Good idea, _she thought, _gives us a chance to see what this gal can do._

Selena sat back being bored. Monster truck rallies were definitely not her idea of a good time, yet someone needed to come here with Ms. Logan. This stadium didn't have any ramps for wheelchairs, ruling out the Professor; Mr. Munro played piano for a jazz band that had booked a gig to towns over for tonight and John had a football game. Kit and Katrina were too inexperienced, so that left Selena.

"ALL RIGHT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," called out the announcer from his box, "LETS HEAR IT FOR THE STRONGEST GAL FROM TEXAS, GIVE IT UP FOR FRIEDA THE 'BULK' DUKES!" Out into the spotlight stepped what had to be the largest teenage girl Selena had ever seen draped in a silver-grey cloak that hid most of her fat but not by much. When she removed it the crowd saw the full extent of her weight as every roll of fat protruded under a white leotard. Selena looked closer and could see she had three chins and huge mass of blond hair that hung down to her waist in a braided mullet.

Frieda Dukes simply smiled cheerfully as she took in the crowds cheers. She blew them kisses, then lowered to grab a chain hooked up to either side and wrapped the chains around her wrists. "ALL RIGHT FRIEDA!" roared the announcer, "LET'S SHOW THE CROWD WHAT YOU CAN DO!"

The trucks revved, speck of sand flying into Frieda's face; she ignored them as the two trucks sped off in different directions. A normal person's arms-heck, maybe even Ms. Logan's despite the adamantium lacing her skeleton-would have been torn from their sockets yet Frieda only laughed as the trucks' rear tires spun futilely, basking in the spotlight. The sheer strength of the girl caused gasps of awe to echo throughout the stadium until with a graced that belied her size Frieda jumped and pulled to two trucks towards her.

CRASH! The trucks' rear ends collided, and the crowd roared as Frieda landed on the wreckage. She stood with her arms held out wide, basking in their adoration. She loved this job; it was the one thing she'd ever found she was good at. She more kisses then bowed-and all of sudden slipped and fell flat onto her face.

The audience went silent, and then came the one thing that truly ruined the night for Frieda: laughter. Tears of rage and hurt ran down her cheeks as they jeered and pointed at her. It took ten strong men to drag her of before she literally ran through the spectators and tore them all limb from limb.

* * *

Emmett Frost looked at the room he now called home. _So my life has come down to this, _he thought. _Living in a loft in the rattiest part of New York City._ Not that he minded. He needed to keep a low profile. Not that anybody was looking for him. After he'd punched his father and saw his body lying in a puddle of blood he- panicked-but not rashly as his body restored to normal. Immediately, he stepped out of the study, locking the door behind him. Giving a few polite nods to passing servants, he walked out the door, got into the Porsche he'd gotten on his sixteenth birthday, and drove off.

He immediately stopped out the nearest ATM and emptied his entire account of 45,000 dollars-unlike either of his brothers Emmett Frost had been saving most of his allowance since he was 10. He drove again, out of Boston for the next two days until he came to New York.

Just an hour in the city he found a man willing to buy the car for less than a third of its worth-but Emmett didn't care. Pocketing the money, he found a loft house in the Bronx where the landlord asked no questions when Emmett paid him six months of rent in advance. For the next two days Emmett simply stayed in the loft, unsure of what to do and ready to bolt at the first sound of police sirens.

On the third day he left his apartment and walked past a newspaper stand, where a Boston Globe headline caught his eye: PHARMACEUTICAL MAGNATE BEATEN BY SON; CONDITION STABLE.

Emmett bought the newspaper and walked away, reading the story. Apparently his father hadn't died; Winston Frost had merely been unconscious. Having been found, he'd was immediately rushed to the hospital and recovered. Reading the rest of the article, Emmett learned that he now had been formally disowned. Dad wasn't even pressing any charges or calling for his arrest; he'd simply washed his hands of his younger son.

Relief filled Emmett. Not that his father was alive; a crazed gunman could mow down his parents and brothers for all Emmett cared. What it meant was Emmett was free. No one would come searching for him, to either take him back to his family or to the penitentiary.

It meant he was free. That he could find his sister. That he could somehow find a way to free his sister from the institution their father had put her in. To run off somewhere, perhaps to Brazil or Switzerland, away from their toxic family never to see them again, and to find someone who could really help Crystal with her drug problem.

Then suddenly Emmett realized one flaw with that idea-they'd need money. Despite having denounced the Frost family fortune Emmett had always had money ready at hand and not the slightest idea how to earn it. The cash he had wouldn't last forever.

At just that moment, the voices came back into Emmett's head.

* * *

Frieda Dukes was sitting in front of her dressing mirror sobbing. It wasn't fair, she thought. Always people had laughed at her or taunted her for being fat. Ever since she was a little girl. Her teachers, her peers at school, complete strangers, even her own skinny, peroxide blonde mother, who blamed Frieda for her father walking out on them and said her daughter was the reason none of her long series of subsequent boyfriends wanted to stay with her. And it had only gotten worse after she turned twelve and really began to put on the pounds. She'd tried everything: diets, intense exercise, even going for weeks without food. Nothing worked, although the exercise did make her extremely strong.

All around Frieda were pieces of furniture, her footlocker, what little stuff she'd brought with her when she ran away from home and joined the truck show-all smashed to pieces. Frieda had even punched the mirror in front of her; strangely she wasn't cut even a little. She heard several knock on the door but ignored them; all Frieda wanted was to be alone in her misery.

After a final knock the door opened, revealing a well-built man wearing glasses and a three piece suit. "Something wrong, young miss?"

Frieda turned and Raymond Darkholme got a good look at her. The girl's face was wet with tears and her makeup had run down her fat face, giving her a rather grotesque appearance. "Yeah," she sobbed. "Those jerks out in the audience. They were all laughing at me. Everyone laughs at me!" She broke out in a fresh round of sobs.

Raymond Darkholme simply stood there emotionless, despite the way this girl's crying irritated him. She apparently was very emotionally volatile, yet such were extremely easy to manipulate. "Well, I represent an organization where your talents will be appreciated.

Frieda looked up at the stranger and wiped the tears from her face. "What, some circus looking for a fat lady?" she said sarcastically.

"No, I have something _much _more interesting for you," Darkholme replied. "Are you interested?"

"Yeah, sure," said Frieda, suspicious yet willing to hear this stranger out. Whatever it was, it had to be better than this, she thought as she walked to the door to close it. Unknown to Frieda however, Ms. Logan and Selena had just come up to the dressing room.

The feral woman sniffed the air. "Something wrong, Ms. Logan?" Selena asked.

"Mysterioss," the older woman replied, and Selena realized they'd been beaten to the punch.

* * *

Emmett had spent the next three days inside his apartment, only going out when he needed to get something to eat. He mostly just brought it back here and ate it while trying to sort out the voices and images flashing through his head.

The young man found if he concentrated hard enough, he could keep them from confusing his own thoughts. Enough willpower and he could block them completely-but he kept changing into that diamond form when he did that.

By the third day Emmett was able to keep the voices at bay-but he could always _feel_ their presences and emotions at the surface of his mind. He also experimented with his diamond form and discovered he was far stronger, practically able to lift up the refrigerator in his loft with one hand.

He went for a walk, feeling the voices around them but keeping them from confusing him. His own worries actually helped him in that. He knew where the institution they kept his sister at was, and the place was, and he was certain he could think of a way to break Crystal out with these newfound abilities of his. But once that was done, where would they get the money they'd need to live off of? Emmett may have denounced his claim to the Frost Family fortune but he had nodesire to spend the rest of his life working dead end minimum wage jobs.

However, as he walked past a man wearing a Brooks Brothers suit and carrying a briefcase, the knowledge that man has embezzled over 10 million dollars from the corporation he works for leaped out at Emmett. Emmett stared at the man, learning his address and phone number. An idea formed in his head….

* * *

"Welcome to Bayville High School." Raymond Darkholme handed Frieda the sheet of paper. "This is your class schedule; your first class is in two minutes."

Frieda scratched her head nervously as she tried to read the schedule; she'd never been very good at reading. "I don't know if I can do school again," she said. "I mean, I didn't really fit in that well the last time I tried."

"Well, I promise you that won't be a problem here," Darkholme replied. "As principal, I can be sure of that." He glanced over at the clock. "As I said, your first class will be starting soon; you don't want to be late."

Frieda nodded and left the office. She kept looking and wandering when the bell sounded, and found herself alone in the hallway. She kept scratching her head as she tried to make head or tails of the schedule, it was all so overwhelming.

"Hey you!" she shouted at a guy in a school jacket, grabbing him by the collar, "Can you tell me where I'm supposed to be?"

"I don't know, maybe at a circus sideshow?" the guy said mockingly. "Or singing at the end of an opera?" he added, laughing at his own wit.

Anger boiled in Frieda as she tightened her grip around the jock's neck, blocking off the air from his circulation. "Don't. You. Make. Fun. OF ME!" she cried as she tossed the football player halfway across the hall, then grabbed three nearby lockers and pulled them off the wall with her enormous strength. Turning back, she moved forward ready to throw them on top of the now cowering jock.

"Say Dean, Coach wants you-?" Both Frieda and her intended victim looked to see a tall, wide shoulder boy with red hair wearing a jacket identical to the other guy's turn the corner. Seeing Frieda the red haired boy said, "Oh, err hi…you must be new here." Frieda was shocked when he actually smiled at her, without any hint of mockery or amusement. "I'm John Grey."

Frieda now felt embarrassed; a guy was actually smiling at her? "Yeah, I am new," she said as she looked up at the locker she was holding.

John looked at Dean and mouthed the words _I'll handle this. _Dean nodded and skittered away, grateful not to be crushed underneath the lockers. "Yeah, I figured," he said, chuckling lightly, but light enough not to hurt. John Grey was the kind of guy who was very good at staying calm in tense situations-a big reason he was the football team captain. "So, what do your friends call you?"

"Don't know," said Frieda as she put the lockers back into place. "I mean I….I never really had any friend," she admitted. "Name's Frieda. Frieda Dukes."

"Well Frieda, I want to apologize for Dean. My teammates are usually a great bunch of guys, but sometimes…they can be real jerks." He picked up the time table. "Do you need help with this?"

"Uh yeah, sure," Frieda replied as John scanned the time table.

John pointed at a class two doors down. "Your first class is there," he said. "Don't worry; the first day is always the roughest. It'll get easier, trust me."

"Yeah," said Frieda, feeling warm inside because of this guy's kindness; guys usually ignored her-when they weren't laughing at her for being fat or cowering in terror at her strength. "Thanks John," she said as she saw him walk away.

* * *

The morning passed at Bayville High like any school day for teenagers-slow and boring, in other words, until Lunch time came. And like at any school, lunch time was about more than eating to the students-it was a time to talk and socialize.

Selena Summer was sitting with Katrina Wagner, talking about the upcoming Thursday. It' wasn't a school night because that coming Friday would be a special teacher's meeting, and to Katrina Thursday would be something more important-the opening night of the convention where she'd be going with Kit.

"So how come you and Kit are avoiding each other?" Selena asked. "I mean, you sit way apart at dinner and breakfast, you're seldom in the same room together, and even now, you're eating at different tables. I mean, it's like you guys are about to get married or something!"

Katrina simply waved at Kit, who was sitting a couple of tables away with John and one of his teammates, an Asian boy named Tyron. Turning back to Selena, she said, "I don't know, I's just-ve don't want the chance to spoil it." It would be her first date, and she didn't really know what to expect. "Kit say's I can even go to this thing and not even need my vatch."

"He's right about that," Selena replied. "Look Katrina, I used to go out with a guy who was really into this kind of stuff and went to a couple of those conventions with him. You wouldn't believe the lengths some of those people go with their costumes. Although," she looked down at Katrina's legs, which the image-inducer made seem like extra-long bell bottoms to hide their goat-like shape, "you might want to wear knee length boots-you don't want to look _too_ realistic."

""Another thing-I've looked in a lot of Kit's D&D manuals and books and their illustrations-the outfits they have a lot of the vomen-human, elf, or demon-in are all kind of-risqué."

Selena rolled her eyes behind her shades in amusement "Yeah, proof that the guys who invented this kind of stuff-or at least the ones who illustrate for them-are huge perverts." Seeing Katrina look down, she added, "Look, I'll help you pick out something to wear and the accessories. The point is, don't worry. Just relax, have fun and enjoy yourself." She then looked a couple of tables down. "Of course, I've got my own project for the weekend."

"Really? Vhat?"

Selena thumbed at the table where Rogue was sitting alone, eating lunch and reading. "Mr. Tompkins assigned us all to perform a scene from a play on Monday, and I got assigned to do Henry V. With _him_."

At the X-boy's table, Kit was happily engaged in in an animated discussion with Tyron about role-playing in general and D&D in particular. One of Kit's strange quirks was that he was quiet most of the time, but when he did start talking, it was hard for him to stop-especially if the subject was role playing games. Tyron had the same passion, and John simply sat back and let them talk, happy to let freely engage in a topic he had no interest in.

Kit did stop talking long enough to see an enormous girl with a braided blond mullet walk out of the lunch line with a tray piled with an enormous amount of food. "Whoa, look at that girl," he said. "She the one Selena and Ms. Logan went to see Saturday night?"

"Oh Frieda?" John said. "She's all right-when she's not ripping off lockers."

"Man, she did _that?" _Tyron's eyes went wide. "Too bad they don't let gals on the team; she'd clear the line all by herself." He went back to his conversation with Kit. "So, you going to the convention Thursday?"

"Yep." Kit smiled. "I've even got a date-with her." He waved to Katrina, and she waved back.

"You lucky dog!" Tyron pounded Kit on the back. "That German girl's quite a looker."

Kit winced; Tyron it seemed didn't know his own strength. Yet getting a friendly pat on the back from a jock was far better than being stuffed into a locker or having his head flushed under the toilet. "We'll even be going in costume."

"What as? I'm going as a vampire samurai."

"You'll see," Kit grinned. "And you'll really be amazed by Katrina's-." Kit never got to finish his sentence. For at that very moment, Frieda Duke laid her tray of food at the table and sat down-

-and her enormous weight caused the seat under her to break, flipping the table and flinging her and the others' trays across the room-right to where Deanna Matthews and her fellow cheerleaders were sitting. Silence fell across the cafeteria as Deanna and the rest of the squad glared at Frieda, who was covered from head to toe in her own food.

"Bad enough we have to look at you, you fat tub of lard," Deanna snarled, "but now you have to throw your lunch all over us?"

"Oh, boy, this can't be good," Tyron says as John buries his face in his hand at the sight of his girlfriend's behavior. From what he saw this morning it could only end one way. Badly.

Frieda tried to get up as Deanna and the other cheerleaders moved toward her but unfortunately something happened. She slipped and fell flat on her face. The cafeteria grew quiet and the students and staff stared at the overweight girl covered with food. Then did the worst thing possible.

They laughed.

The laughter echoed from nearly everyone in the cafeteria as the anger mixed with hurt bubbled up in Frieda-and leaped out at John, causing him a major headache.

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" Frieda roared, and grabbed several pieces of food off of her. She threw them at the cheerleaders, knocking Deanna and several others down while others ducked and several bystanders wear struck.

"FOOD FIGHT!" someone yelled, and the next thing anyone knew, nearly EVERYBODY was throwing food.

A piece of cake struck Kit, and he looked down at himself in disgust. Seeing Tyron had gone-apparently being among the handful to leave-Kit said, "I don't know about you but I'm getting out of here," and phased through the floor. Across the room, Katrina decided Kit had the right idea, and immediately ported right out.

John Grey groaned at the mayhem forming around him. Someone had to put a stop to it before Frieda's rage got out of control and she seriously hurt someone. And he feared, that someone had to be him.

End of Chapter Eight

_Writing this chapter is real challenge, because it's hard to reimagine Jean Grey as a guy. Yet being a telepath, 'John' is more sensitive to others' feelings than most, and add that to the basic 'nice guy jock' persona and it works out well enough._

_For the Brotherhood-yes I'm still calling it that. Sisterhood would imply an all female group which it's not suppsoed to be and the gender neutral 'Siblinghood' just doesn't have the same ring to it-I'm going to have to bolster their ranks in order to balence out the genders and to put them on aneven keel with the X-Men at least numerical wise. Which means teenage male versions of X-men villianesses. Readers, I would greatly appreciate suggestions from you._

_Next chapter Kit and Katrina go the the convention, and Katrina gets to go out in public without her holo-watch. Rogue and Selena do the Henry V reading with the roles reverersed from the TV episode, John gets kidnapped-and Emmett tries to free his sister only to find something truly horrible._


	9. Chapter 9

X-Men Evolution and all related characters are the property of Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anybody else involved in their production. No money is being made from their use, so please don't sue me-instead find some other stupid lawsuit.

Chapter 9

"Frieda!" John cried out as he blocked the food coming his way with a force field-thankfully with all the commotion no one noticed-"Frieda calm down!" he repeated in a tone he used when his teammates were acting out of line. He began to run toward her but stepped on a piece of cake and slipped-right toward a blinded, angry Frieda who'd just grabbed a table by a leg. Enraged and blinded by the food in her face the enormous girl swung the table blindly around the room-and about to hit the sliding John

BLAST! A red beam shot across the cafeteria and shattered the table, leaving only a leg in Frieda's massive hands. Which she still swung around like a club.

_Frieda! _John shouted telepathically into Frieda's head. _Frieda stop! _

M All of a sudden Frieda did. She wiped the food away from her eyes and saw John lying down on the floor. "John?" she said, and she blushed as if now embarrassed by what she'd just done. "John, I'm-I'm so sorry."

"I know," John said, getting to his feet with a little help from his telekinesis. Most of the students were no leaving, knowing Principal Darkholme would be here soon and not wanting to stick around to catch detention.

"They-they shouldn't have made fun of me!" Frieda sat the table leg down and planted herself on the seat of another table.

"No Frieda, they shouldn't," John agreed. Frieda began to cry again, like a little baby, and John was feeling all of her emotions-her rage, her pain at rejection, and humiliation at being laughed at. He also remembered Deanna's behavior, and told himself he'd have a talk with his girlfriend. "But Frieda, acting like you just did-it's not going to fix things, will it?" He glanced back to Selena who was holding her glasses, ready to raise them for another blast. _I'll handle this, _John though to her._ Don't you have a class to get to? _Reluctantly Selena nodded, gathered up her books, and left the cafeteria.

"I'm-I'm sorry, John," Frieda repeated again as she wiped the last of the tears from her face. "It's just that—when people laugh at me-something inside explodes."

"I understand," John answered. "Sometimes-people are just-jerks."

"How did you do that-thing where you spoke inside my head?"

"Oh." John sat down next to Frieda. TO the big girl it felt really strange; she never had a guy this close to her before. "I'm a telepath; I can read minds." He held out a hand to one of the fallen chairs. "And I can do this."

John moved his hand, and the table stirred, before coming of the ground as if by an invisible force, then flying against the wall, shattering into tiny pieces."

"Whoa," said Frieda in amazement. "I'll bet that really helps you win football games!"

"No Frieda!" John sighed. "I don't use it then. That wouldn't be fair to my teammates. Or the other team." The truth was, one of the reasons John enjoyed playing football so much was that the roar of the crowds and the pace of the game made it _easier _for him to ignore the voices that were always present inside his head. "And I learned to control my gifts at the institute where I live at. You can too." True, Frieda's problem had more to do with her emotions than with her powers but John figured the Professor would be able to help in that area-in addition to genetic mutation Charlene Xavier was a respected authority in human psychology and psychiatry. "I'm sure the professor would love to meet you. When you're ready."

"Yeah well-I'll think about it," Frieda replied.

"Am I interrupting something?" The two teenagers looked to see Raymond Darkholme standing in the cafeteria doorway.

"Oh, a Principal Darkholme!" John Grey stood up. "I was just, er, ah-?"

"Don't you have a class to get to, Mr. Grey?" John nodded. "Then I suggest you get to it, or our football team may just have to find itself a new team captain! Understood?" Nodding, John picked up his books and walked to the cafeteria door. On reaching it he looked back and said, "We'll talk some more, okay Frieda?"

"Yeah, sure." Frieda waved back at John, blushing.

As soon as John was gone, the principal turned back to the large girl. "And that'll be detention for you after school today, Miss Dukes," he said. "In my office."

* * *

Emmett Frost counted up all the money he'd collected so far. It was amazing, he thought, how much people would pay to keep secrets secret. Most of those secrets weren't even criminal or ruinous just-embarrassing. _Like the way Crystal embarrassed Dad, _Emmett thought, his mood darkening.

He didn't have quite enough yet-he'd always been careful not to demand too much from his marks or he'd attract unwanted attention. He always demanded the people whose minds he'd read place their money in different spots that were within easy sight of his apartment; and he'd learned to use his mind reading ability to tell when they arrived. If they decided not to give in to black mail he didn't push them-he'd just find other marks. And a city as big as New York was full of people, people with secrets they'd want to keep secret.

_It won't be too long, sis. _Emmett took out from his wallet the only photo he still had with him and Crystal-Spring Break together at Fort Lauderdale smiling at the camera.

He then remembered who'd taken the picture. Velma Van Euless. A former girlfriend of Adrian's who decided she liked Crystal better. _Was it Adrian who set Crystal up at New Years? _Emmett wondered. It was also after that trip he'd found out his sister had been using drugs. Had Adrian somehow arranged that too? He'd never gotten along with her-or with Emmett; the oldest Frost boy always took great pleasure in hurting his siblings all the while playing the good son to their father in hopes of being named heir to the Frost family fortune.

Emmett shook his head. Adrian was a manipulative douchebag but he wasn't some supernatural being with magic powers. _Then again, you can read minds and become a living diamond statue, _he thought to himself.

Finally he decided it didn't matter. Soon, he'd get his sister out of the asylum and they'd be on their way to a new life in Brazil. After having disowned Emmett Winston Frost would have no choice but to name Adrian his heir-he'd certainly never put it in the hands of irresponsible Cordell! _Looks like you get what you wanted, bro, _Emmett thought, _wherever all this is your handiwork or not._

* * *

At a hotel on the other side of Manhattan a white haired woman who looked like she might be anywhere from thirty-five to fifty-but in reality was much older-rewound the pictures she'd taking with her digital camera.

The boy was using his powers for blackmail, was he? Quite useful, yet he seemed to be lying low. Adrian Frost had told her two weeks ago that he thought his brother's powers would soon be emerging, but wasn't sure when or how-although he thought young Emmett might be a telepath like himself.

Magnetrix pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Hello, you have reached the office of Adrian Frost, assistant director of research at Frost Pharmaceuticals."

"Adrian," Magnetrix said, "I've found your brother." She relayed what she'd seen of his activities.

"So my little brother's reading minds for blackmail, is he?" Adrian Frost said through the phone. "I suppose that little weasel is going to try to spring Crystal from the mental institution our old man put her in; Emmett always was fond of our dyke sister." He gave Magnetrix the location then asked, "Is there anything else you need, Mistress?"

"No thanks; that will do for now." Magnetrix closed the cell phone and pondered the situation. So the boy had a strong attachment to his sister, did he? A weakness, but surely one that she could use to her advantage if need be.

Most likely the boy wouldn't try to do anything until after dark. Probably not tonight either. Magnetrix was certain the reason the boy was collecting money so he could set up a new life for himself and his sister once he'd freed her. Anyway she'd have to watch him.

A boy of four emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel. "Okay mommy, I'm done showering."

Magnetrix affectionately rubbed the boy dry then helped him dress. "Are you ready to go to the play tonight, Lorne?"

"Yes mommy!" Lorne answered. Magnetrix combed her son's brown hair and looked into his green eyes. _He looks so much like his brother-_suddenly an image flashed in front of her, of a boy twelve years old being dragged into an enormous building by several guards shouting, "_Mother! Why are you doing this to me! Why are you leaving me! Mother!"_ And of herself standing next to a car, doing her best to keep her face stern while a girl who looked like a smaller version of Magnetrix stared glaringly at her.

"Mommy?" Lorne asked. "Mommy, is something wrong?"

"It's-nothing." Magnetrix looked away from Lorne. _I had no choice but to put Warrick away, _she thought. _That boy could not control his temper, and with power like he possessed he would simply be too dangerous. _"It's nothing sweet-heart," she looked back at her son. "C'mon, we'll be late for the curtain call if we don't hurry."

Magnetrix walked out of the hotel room holding her son's hand. Even if she was wrong about tonight, she was certain that Emmett Frost would wait until dark to go to the asylum where they held his sister. The play where she was taking Lorne would be long over by then; in the meantime she just wanted to be a mother.

* * *

It was Wednesday night at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Which meant for said gifted youngsters it would be one more night before a three day weekend-and Kit and Katrina's date.

Kit was all nervous as he was asking John for advice. "When should I hold her hand?" he asked. "Will I seem like I'm too forward or aggressive? How will I know if she wants to kiss or be close?"

John chuckled; Kit reminded him of how nervous he'd been when he was getting ready for his first date. "Kit, calm down. You already know Katrina likes you, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to go out with you. And I think it's great you're taking her to someplace where her appearance won't get noticed that much."

"Yeah, well, I don't know-I mean you know how nervous she is about how she looks. I mean, was it a mistake to suggest she go without her holo-watch?"

"Kit, please-just relax." John placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder. "Kit, if you want to hold her hand do so. She'll probably feel less nervous having you close by. And if you feel you want to kiss her, kiss her. The worst thing would be if she decides she doesn't want to go out with you anymore-you don't think she'll slap you or punch you do you?"

"No," Kit admitted. "You seem down about something."

"It's-Deanna." John sighed. "I tried to talk to her after school about how she'd insulted Frieda. And she shouted that if I liked Frieda so much, maybe I should be dating her instead."

"Oh yeah." Kit remembered the professor telling him and the others about Frieda's mutation she gleaned from Cerebro. Namely that her being fat was a by-product of how the x-gene affected her body. _Awful glad it's not me,_ he thought. Maybe being a little guy wasn't so bad after all.

One the other side of the mansion in Selena's room, Katrina was modeling in front of the mirror in the outfit they picked together for the convention; she'd decided to go as a D&D role playing character she'd created. "I don't know," Katrina said. By the look on her face she really wanted to wear something like this but she was also scared.

"Katrina, look," Selena said, "I realize you're nervous about being in public without the image-inducer, but trust me. I've seen people at this sort of thing-many of them won't look that different than you or they'll seem even more abnormal."

"It's not just that," Katrina replied. "Vhat if-someone rubs up against me and feels my fur? Or they step on my tail?" She was holding the item in question, as she habitually did when worried or agitated.

"Katrina, you risk someone rubbing against you all the time," Selena said. "And trust me, if someone does step on your tail and you scream, they'll just think you're really into character. Sometimes I can't believe the lengths these people go to with that." She chuckled slightly. "I told you I used to go out with a guy who was into this kind of stuff. For our second date he took me to a Star Trek convention. I just wore my visor as part of my outfit as a blind Starfleet officer."

Selena picked up her makeup case and walked over to Katrina. "Okay, now hold still," she said as she applied dark red lipstick on Katrina's lips, then outlined her eyes and mascaraed her eyelashes. She then painted Katrina's nails a matching red-or at least she thought so; because of her shades Selena had to keep her makeup very well organized. Finally she piled up Katrina's hair under a stocking cap before putting a white wig in place. "Now look at you," she told the German girl. "How do you feel?"

"I feel-pretty." Katrina blushed.

* * *

"There," said Frieda as she just finished wiping up the floor for the cafeteria. After spending detention with at least three other students, Principal Darkholme had made her clean the cafeteria all by herself with only a small rag and a tiny bucket of soapy water-which she had frequently. And Mr. Darkholme inspected every inch of the cafeteria with a white glove.

"It will do," said the principal. "Now I need to talk to you-about that boy, John Grey."

"John?" Frieda blushed as she thought of him. "He's awful nice."

"Is he?" Raymond Darkholme shifted into Mysterioss. He took out a yearbook from his briefcase. "Here; I want to show you just how 'nice' he is."

The principal opened the yearbook to the chapter on the football team, and touched a picture of John. "Sophomore varsity MVP. Youngest player to make lead quarterback in the school's history." He flipped to some more pages. "Leading sophomore honor student. Most valued track and field runner." He leaned in closer to Frieda. "Do you _really _think a boy like him would want to be friends with someone like you?"

Frieda's face crumpled; at her old school the jocks, the popular kids, and the honor students were the cruelest to her. If John was one of them….

"And here." Mysterioss showed Frieda the pictures of last year's homecoming, prom, and all the dances in between. And every one of them showed John with Deanna Matthews. The cheerleader who'd called Frieda a 'fat tub of lard.'

Mysterioss smiled. "He's been playing with you girl. Pretending to be your friend by acting nice while laughing behind your back with that cheerleader girlfriend of his."

The hurt on Frieda's face slowly turned into red, boiling, anger. She grabbed the yearbook from Mysterioss's hand and ripped it apart like tissue paper. "I'll rip him to pieces!" she roared.

"Very well," Mysterioss said, smiling to himself at his own cleverness. If nothing else, he made sure he wouldn't lose this one to the Xavier Institute. And there was also the possibility of an added bonus of John Grey being benched for the rest of the football season, taking the Xavier Institute down a peg. "Here's what you do."

The next day at the end of class, Kit was walking out of the school with John and Tyron. It felt strange to him being friends with not just one but _two _jocks-one of whom actually liked science fiction and role playing almost as much as Kit himself. "You mean you can't go tonight?"

"Nope," Tyron answered. "I've got practice tonight, and then the game tomorrow. But Saturday, I'll definitely be there for the most important event of all-the costume contest! And I'm gonna win!"

"Yeah right," snorted Kit. "Katrina and I, we'll have you way beat."

A few feet away, Selena was standing with her friend Paula. "Looks like I've got to go meet Rogue at the park."

"I am _so_ not jealous of you girlfriend," Paula retorted. "Imagine, having to do a love scene with like, the most anti-social guy in Bayville's history."

_Not to mention he thinks we tried to attack him, _Selena thought. "Well, I'm going to be doing my part. Who knows, maybe I crack that shell he keeps himself in."

"Yeah." Paula rolled her eyes to show what she thought of that. "With blasting caps and plastique, maybe."

"Maybe. Or with an atomic bomb." The two girls laughed as Selena waved for Kit to come over. After the smaller boy joined them, they walked over to Selena's car. "Nervous tonight, Kit?"

"Kinda," Kit admitted.

"What's going on?" Paula wanted to know.

"Kit's got his first date."

"Really?" Paula reached into the back seat, making Kit blush with embarrassment. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"Katrina."

"Oh. By the way, where is she?"

"Oh, she has her own way of getting home," Selena added, in truth Katrina had found a secluded spot and teleported back to the Institute. "She and Kit have been kind of avoiding each other, as if they might somehow spoil it."

"Aw young love," cooed Paula. "How sweet." Kit breathed a sigh of relief when Selena dropped her friend off and they headed back to the mansion.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Bayville High boy's locker room Tyron had just finished changing for practice while John staring at the ceiling. "Hey Johnny, are you gonna change or what?"

"Sorry, it's just-I'm kind of mad at Deanna right now."

"Oh yeah. She shouldn't have gotten so upset at that new girl Frieda. I mean, okay so Frieda caused her and her squad mates' uniforms to get all dirty. It was an accident; Frieda didn't do it on purpose."

"Yeah. But those things she said; calling Frieda those names-I wonder-,"

Almost as if on cue, the door to the boys locker room slammed open and in Walked Frieda. "Frieda what are you doing here?" John asked. "This is the _boys_' locker room."

"John-we need to talk." The tone in Frieda's voice was hard. And angry.

"Well, I've got practice. Can't it wait?" John didn't need to be a telepath to realize something had upset Frieda but he simply didn't have time right now. "Look, I promise that after practice I'll talk about whatever it is that's bothering you."

Frieda simply marched over to John and grabbed him by the arm. "I thought you were my friend."

"I am Frieda." John winced; this girl was strong! "But friends don't barge in on each other-especially not the locker room."

"I need to talk to you," Frieda simply repeated, and John could tell there was no way he could shake her off without using his powers.

"Go on," he said to Tyron. "I handle this. Tell Coach I'm going to be late." Nodding, the Asian boy went out of the locker room, perhaps a little faster than he normally would.

"Frieda, whatever this is-." Instead of answering him, Frieda simply grabbed John by both arms and pushed him out of the locker room.

As he was hauled to a nearby place where a new section was being added to the school building, John was grateful no one saw him; even though he was no male chauvinist being overpowered by a girl was embarrassing. Even by an exceptionally big and strong girl like Frieda.

Standing under a structure supporting a large quantity of bricks, Frieda glanced at the cheerleading squad at practice in the far end of the field. "That blonde girl there," Frieda said, pointing to Deanna Matthews, "the one who called me a fat tub of lard and said I was a pain to look at-is she your girlfriend?"

"Well, yes, but-." John was about to say he was angry with her for the way she had treated Frieda-but now Frieda lifted him off the ground and pulled him by the arms. "OW!"

"So it's true. And you're even worse than she is. You pretended to be nice and friendly to me!" Pinning both arms behind him, Frieda slammed John's face into the wall. With both arms pinned, the best John could do was to raise a small force field that only marginally cushioned the blow. "OW!"

Frieda laughed maniacally. "Another thing guys don't like about me besides bein' fat. I'm a whole lot stronger than ANY OF THEM!" She slammed John against the wall again; this time the impact hurt more.

And John was tired of trying to talk his way out of this. Looking up at the bricks, he thought at them-and large pile came crashing down on Frieda.

The large girl simply batted the bricks away. "That the best you've got?" she sneered.

_No, this is._ John looked to the poles supporting the structure. He thought, and made them bend. Just a little more-just a little. But even as he felt them bend, somewhere in the back of his head a voice told John that this might be a bad idea.

Then a ton of bricks fell on John, and just before everything went black he realized it _was _a bad idea.

* * *

"C'mon, Katrina." Kit was standing outside the dressing room set up for convention goers at the hotel. He was already dressed in his outfit-an ordinary medieval peasant shirt and trousers, slightly torn and ragged, with a touch of makeup to make him look battered and bruised. "I realize you're nervous, but you can't spend the whole weekend in there."

Slowly, Katrina stepped out-without her holo-watch on. She was dressed in a red and white tube top, with long skirt slit up to her thighs on both side. Her cloven feet were stuffed into a pair of knee high heeled boots and she wore fingerless ankle length gauntlets that showed her three finger hands. Her makeup and nail polish were exquisitely done and she wore a white wig braided and tied back into a high ponytail. A number of other people attending the convention-some in costume, some not-stopped and stared at Katrina.

"Katrina," said Kit in a quiet voice, "you-you're-you're _beautiful_."

"Yeah, I'll say," said a thirty something woman who was dressed like a Klingon. "That's incredible makeup you've got on. I'd like to know who did it for you."

"Yes," said a guy who looked about the same age made out as techno-Viking. "But what are you supposed to be, exactly?"

"Me?" Katrina looked at Kit who smiled and nodded. "I'm-I'm Deirdre B'anell," she said, naming a character she personally invented for a Dungeons and Dragons game, "half fiend daughter to drow Matron Mother Malicia B'anell of House B'anell, by an incubus from the Abyss! And this miserable human," she clasped a chain collar around Kit's neck and held a mock dagger at his throat, "is a captive to be brought to my mother's altar as an offering to Lolth! Hail to the Spider Queen!"

"HAIL TO THE SPIDER QUEEN!" a trio of girls dressed as drow clerics chanted in unison. They raised their hands along with Katrina. "HAIL TO THE SPIDER QUEEN! HAIL TO THE SPIDER QUEEN!"

* * *

When John Grey slowly came to; the first thing he realized was that he wasn't at Bayville High anymore. He was someplace dark and cramped; the only light coming from a large number of lit candles all around the room.

And he was suspended from the low ceiling by a chain around his wrists. There was even a leather bag wrapped over his hands. And he was stripped down to his waist.

"Wakey wakey sleepy head." Frieda stepped right in front of him, wearing her leotard from the truck show and really heavy makeup on her face. Standing face to face with John, she looked like a dominatrix for chubby chasers. "Figured if you were bound up like this you wouldn't be able to use that move objects with your mind trick you do." Actually Mysterioss had told Frieda that, but it worked just the same.

"Frieda, just what is this about?" John asked although he could figure the anger that was emanating from her just what she had in mind.

"What is this about?" Frieda chuckled as she raised her fist-the fingers of which were covered with heavy gold rings. "This is about every fat girl who's had to put up with being laughed at and teased. And people like you," she added as she raised back her arm, "are worse than the other kind-because you find me every bit as repulsive as they do-only they're honest about it!"

Before she finished speaking Frieda's fist slammed into John's stomach. "OOF!" John cried; none of the football players he'd been hit by felt as hard. "Don't like that?" laughed Frieda. "Well, that's just for a warm-up."

End of Chapter nine

_I'd hoped to finish up the entire 'Mutant Crush' story arc, and get on to 'Speed and Spike.' But this chapter was taking too long, so I decided to end it here._

'_Lorne,' is this fic's version of Lorna Dane, AKA Polaris, Magneto's daughter and the Maximoff twins' half-sister. He is only four years old here, so his powers haven't emerged and his hair hasn't turned green. And Magnetrix was pregnant with him that night when…._

_And Adrian, a gender bent version of Adrienne Frost, Emma's older sister who frankly no jury would convict Emma for shooting in cold blood. Which she did. _


	10. Chapter 10

X-Men: Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anybody else involved in their production. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-instead sue whoever writes Larry the Cable Guy's crappy material!

I've had chapter nine up for about a week, and although I got a few followers and favorites, I didn't get a single review! That better not happen this time or I just may not update anymore!

Chapter 10

It was strange, Katrina thought. Here she was, surrounded by thousands of strangers, without her holo-watch, and no one noticed anything! True she was wearing a wig and she was hiding the shape of her feet with knee length boots. But here she was with her blue complexion, gold eyes, three fingered hands and even her tail dangling from underneath her skirt, yet most people just gave her a casual glance or complimented her on her realistic 'makeup.'

Okay, so there were whole bunch of other people here dressed in outlandish costumes and makeup-some that looked as if they came from a movie studio!-and many were dressed as drow or those creatures from the movie Avatar that bore a passing resemblance to Katrina. Some of the cosplayers had costumes so realistic that Katrina wondered if they too were secretly mutants who'd come to the convention solely because they would go unnoticed.

"Kit," she smiled, "you vere right. Hardly anyone notices or cares how I look!"

Kit smirked and took her hand in his. "What did I tell you?" He had his own nervousness too; he had been to a number of conventions like these yet it felt different this time. Those other times he'd gone with other guys like him, dork and geeks and the only girls who came with them he'd only been buddies with. He enjoyed having Katrina's hand in his, and those fangs of hers looked so cute when she smiled.

"Kit?" Katrina asked. "Kit, vhat is it?"

"Oh, nothing." Kit wrapped his other arm around her neck, and when she didn't brush it away he had to fight to keep from skipping with joy. Things were going better than he'd hoped.

* * *

Emmett Frost handed the dealer the money for the down payment on the car-in cash. The car in question was a plain but serviceable Camaro-a far car from the Porsche he'd disposed of but good enough for his purposes. He'd planned to ditch the car later, after he got Crystal out and got on board the plane for Switzerland. They'd have just enough to start a modest new life-or rather modest by Frost standards, which wasn't very.

Then again if he need to, Switzerland was bound to have plenty of people with secrets they'd pay to keep secret too. Yet Emmett realized he didn't want to live on blackmail for the rest of his life. He wanted to continue his education and set himself up in business, and to genuinely help Crystal with her drug problem. He always figured he'd have to make his own way into the world, and it looked like he'd be starting far earlier than he expected.

"Tonight, Crystal," he promises. "Tonight, I'll get you out of that place."

* * *

WHAM! Frieda's fist slammed in to John again. He'd done his best to raise a telekinetic force field, but with his hands bound up the best he could do was to raise a weak field that only cushioned the blows as if Frieda was wearing boxing gloves. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Johns face and chest were sore all over and when he tried to speak a couple of times he spat up blood. Luckily it wasn't much and he didn't feel his sides piercing his lung when he breathed so he didn't have any broken ribs. Yet.

He didn't dare use his telepathy to contact the professor for fear of weakening his force field. He was feeling the force of Frieda's fists enough as it was.

Finally Frieda stopped punching John long enough to step back and observe her handiwork. "Not bad," she said, "for a start. Just hang there for a while; I'm going to get you something special." She blew him a kiss and waddled off. John didn't know just what she was planning to get, but he now had a chance. _Professor! _John shouted with his mind. _Professor, can you hear me?_

* * *

"Really?" Charlene Xavier asked into the phone's receiver. "That's so not like John. Are your certain he's not on the school grounds?" The professor listened for several minutes then added, "Very well, I'll keep an eye out for him. Notify me if you learn anything. Thank you; goodbye."

"Who was that?" Ms. Logan asked as Charlene put the phone down on her desk; they'd been discussing Danger Room Schematics when the phone rang.

"That was Samuel Denver, John's football coach," Xavier replied. "He says John hasn't showed up for football practice. Several of his friends have called on his cell phone but he hasn't answered."

"Doesn't sound like Johnny at all; we all know how much he loves football," Ms. Logan mused. "You don't suppose-?"

Ms. Logan never got to finish what she was about to say because Charlene Xavier suddenly felt a large migraine. She'd had her wigs designed so that she wouldn't hear voices in her head all the time yet she was well aware that sometimes someone might need to contact her in an emergency, so she had this safeguard built in incase someone tried to reach her through telepathy. Immediately she pulled off her wig and John's desperate thoughts enter her brain. _Professor, it's that girl Frieda. Somehow he got angry with me, and now she's holding me here-I don't know where-and she's beating the crap out of me!_

_Don't worry John, help is on the way._ She looked at Ms. Logan. "John's in trouble; he's been kidnapped by Frieda Dukes, that girl I sent you to scout out Saturday. Get Kit and Katrina, and have Katrina get Selena."

"Right." Ms. Logan's face tightened in a scowl. Despite being a loner, she had really come to care for the kids, and she was ready to eviscerate anybody who'd hurt them. "I'll try to pick up the trail," she said and let her adamantium claws pop out. "Then I'll burst that fat girl's bubble."

* * *

Kit and Katrina were engaged in a conversation with some other cosplayers from Bayville High who were part of the school's D&D club. "Your makeup is so amazing," said Gina Friedman who was dressed as a female drow warrior. "Who does it? I'd like to get myself that realistic!"

"Oh, ah, the professor who runs the institute we live at has some connections to a movie studio," Katrina gave the answer she and Kit had worked out. It was true; Charlene Xavier was a major shareholder in several movie production companies. Katrina hated lying; telling something truthful but misleading didn't _quite_ pull at her conscience as much.

"Hey Imp, Elf." Kit and Katrina turned to see Lady Wolverine standing behind them. One thing about the convention, Ms. Logan could walk right in wearing her uniform and nobody would give her more than a glance. "Sorry to interrupt your date but I've got something tell you. Come out with me."

Giving quick apologies to their classmates Kit and Katrina followed Lady Wolverine outside to the parking lot. "I got to tell you two: John's been kidnapped and being held prisoner. By that girl Frieda Dukes."

"Huh?" Kit asked. "John hasn't been anything but nice to her; why would she do that?"

"Ask the professor if you want to know how someone's mind works," grunted Lady Wolverine. "All I know is we got to find them. Imp, you come with me. Nightshade go get Selena, she's in Bayville Park, and bring her back to the Institute. Got that?" The two teenagers nodded and Katrina teleported out in a cloud of smoke.

"C'mon Imp," said Lady Wolverine as she mounted her motorcycle, "We got to head back and get you suited up.

* * *

"Do ya like me Kate?" Rogue read from the hardback copy of Henry V, a bored expression on his pale face and an equally bored tone in his voice.

"Pardonnez moi?" said Selena, pronouncing the normally silent z at the end of the first word and pretty much botching the French accent. "I cannot tell what is like me?"

"Ya are like an angel, Kate," continued Rogue in the same bored tone, "and ya like an angel."

Selena closed her book shut and snorted. "You know, that drawl of yours doesn't exactly go well with Shakespere."

"Well _pardonnez moi," _Rogue replied, pronouncing the French words perfectly, "for bein' from the South. Ah can't help how Ah talk, y'know."

Selena then realized something. "You speak French?"

Rogue shrugged. "Orphanage Ah grew up in was run by a French lady. Plus there were a lot of Cajun kids, so it kind of rubbed off."

"I grew up in an orphanage too," Selena said. "Lost my parents and little sister in a plane crash." An idea came to Selena; maybe here was a way she could connect to this boy. "Then my powers activated and, well, Professor Xavier found me."

"Yay for you." Rogue's face resumed its usual sullen expression.

"Okay Mr. Moody and Broody, since you do a French accent so well, may you should be Kate and I should be Henry." Rogue actually cracked a shirt laugh at that. Selena leaned in closer. "You know, you do look a lot better when you smile."

"Ah ain't had much to smile about lately."

Selena suddenly became aware that in this park were several girls running around wearing halter tops and hot pants-it was Indian summer in Bayville-and Rogue was trying hard _not _to look. _Poor guy_ Selena thought; teenage guys, even nice ones like John, were walking bags of hormones from sun up to sundown. To have all that and not be able to touch people- "Rogue, I-."

"It's just-sometimes I wish-that Ah could-y'know, get close to someone." Rogue stared off, and it struck Selena how incredibly lonely he had to be.

"Yeah, like it's so great to have to wear these shades and see everything in red all the time." Selena told Rogue how Katrina had switched around her makeup that morning and she'd gone to school looking like an Avant guard French artist had been drinking too much wine. To her surprise, that actually got another laugh from Rogue.

BAMF! An explosion of smoke and sulfur appeared between them and there was Katrina, still wearing her convention dress. "Vhoa, tender moment?" the German girl joked. "Sorry to interrupt."

"What's the meaning of this Katrina?" Selena muttered.

"John's been kidnapped. By that other mutant fraulien, Frieda."

Selena's eyebrows went up above her shades; she wasn't sure about the fat girl but hadn't expected her to do this. "Why?" _If it was that bitch Deanna I could understand but John's hasn't once done anything but try to be her friend. _Then she noticed Rogue looking away from them. "You! You know anything about this?"

"No," Rogue said defensively. "And even if Ah did Ah wouldn't tell the likes of y'all."

"Well, I hope you can live with yourself." Selena placed a hand on Katrina's shoulder. "Teleport to the max, Ms. Wagner," she said, going into Star Trek mode from the time she'd dated a Trekkie.

"Aye-aye, _Hauptman_," Katrina said, and BAMF! The two girls disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving Rogue wondering what to do. Last night at the boarding house he had heard Frieda go on about how she was going to make somebody pay for hurting her. And also something about an abandoned steel mill….

* * *

Back at the Institute, Charlene Xavier had the X-Men gathered in the Danger Room, suited up

and ready. "The trouble is, John doesn't know where he is," the professor said. She pointed to a holographic map of Bayville. "I've been able to pinpoint his-and Miss Duke's-location in this area," she points out the northwest section on the map, "yet all John has been able to tell me is that he is within someplace dark and cramped."

"Don't worry Charlie, we'll find him," Ms. Logan says reassuringly. "All right, lets head out and split up," she tells the rest of the X-men.

* * *

As soon as Frieda had left him, John reached out with his telepathy. Though he normally didn't like to do this to people without permission his current circumstances were not normal to say the least. Maybe if he looked into the deeper corners of Frieda's mind he could learn why she was so angry with him.

The image that leaped into John's brain was of last year's Bayville High yearbook showing him and Deanna at homecoming. And holding up the yearbook for Frieda to see was blue skinned, red-haired man. _Mysterioss!_ John had seen the mutant shape-shifter only a couple of times yet knew Mysterioss meant bad news for him and his friends. And he learned something else too-something he wanted to kick himself for not seeing earlier.

Now John opened his eyes and saw Frieda walking back to the candle lit-office room holding something that looks like a medieval helmet with two strange screw-knobs over the temples. "Heh heh heh," Frieda chuckles. "This little tin hat was used by the Spanish Inquisition," Frieda said. Mysterioss had it in a collection of various forms of torture devices and had explained. "Slip it over some schmoe's head," she said as she planted it firmly over John's, "and turn the screws just so…" If John's hands were free, if he had full use of his telekinesis he could easily fling that helmet out the window. But now with his hands bound and beaten and exhausted as he is, he can only put up a weak force field. One that does keep the screws away as they are being turned-but even that effort put a great strain on him and he can feel his head pounding. "Frieda, please, just listen. You're being manipulated."

"Yeah I was-by you!" Frieda gave the screws another turn, and the effort it took John to erect a force field just to keep the screws from touching him was having the same effect as if he didn't bother. Too much longer and he wouldn't be able to go on. Yet he had to. He had to keep fighting, to talk to Frieda, to try to reason with her.

A loud clash of metal ringing on metal sounded; Frieda turned to the office door. "Looks like you got a reprieve, John-boy." She stomped off, leaving John alone.

Frieda looked at the door and saw what looked like six blades slice through the metal, and a short voluptuous yet feral woman wearing an orange and black suit leapt at her through the doorway.

She swung at Frieda but the large girl simply grabbed her by the wrist, tossing her to the ceiling. With agility nearly rivaling that of Frieda's housemate Tonya the woman somersaulted in the air and landed right between her and the room where she was holding John.

"All right girlie," Lady Wolverine snarled. "Just let us have our friend back and we'll go easy on you."

"I'm giving him what he deserves," laughed Frieda. "And if you're friends with him, I'll give you what you deserve too!"

Lady Wolverine did not reply, but rushed at her. Frieda only laughs as she grabbed her by the wrist and leaped-surprisingly high for someone of her weight, and landed stomach first with Lady Wolverine right underneath her. "Can't-breathe," gasped the smaller woman; the only thing keeping her from being crushed was her adamantium skeleton.

"Sorry Lassie but Johnny's been a naughty boy, and I have to punish him," Frieda laughed again.

A red beam flashed over Frieda. She looked behind her to Selena dressed as Cyclopa with Nightshade and Shadow beside her. "So now more of Johnny's dogs are coming. Well Lassie," she got to her feet surprisingly fast for her bulk still holding Lady Wolverine who just passed out, "go back to your pack!" She hurled Lady Wolverine at Cyclopa, who tried to blast Frieda some more. Frieda only stood there as the red beam slammed into her-then Lady Wolverine slammed into Selena, sending the two women back across Lady Wolverine's bike and Cyclopa falling over unconscious, pinned to the ground by Lady Wolverine's body and causing her visor to fall off.

"What are you two small fries gonna do to me?" Frieda said smugly. Nightshade disappeared in a cloud of smoke then reappeared around Frieda's neck, trying to punch her. Frieda just grabbed her around the neck and squeezed putting a chokehold on the blue girl.

"Hey, she was on a date tonight with me!" Shadow shouted. "Which you ruined!"

"What you gonna do about it, shrimp?" Frieda roared. "I'm the Bulk! How you gonna get past me?"

"Like this!" Shadow ran up to Frieda, leaped up and phased Nightshade through her hand, then ran right through the big girl and into the office-where John was being held.

"John!" Shadow gasped at the sight of his battered and bruised friend. "John, what'd she do to you?"

"Long story," John said. "Could you get me down, please?"

"Oh yeah." Shadow grabbed a hold of John then phased him through his makeshift shackles. And next vomited all over John's boots. He'd never phased through an entire living person before and the result was making him sick. "Oh God, going through her-," Shadow swooned then passed out.

Rogue had come up to the steel mill which he heard Frieda talking about. Coming upon the unconscious Cyclopa and Lady Wolverine, he heard something going on inside. Gently, he touched the unconscious Cyclopa on the forehead, draining her power. Only a little, he doesn't want to cause any permanent damage.

"Okay so now your free," Bulk laughed. "But the two who could have got you out of here are now flat on the ground, so what you going to do?"

"This!" John Grey shot forth his hands; now that they were free he had the full use of his telekinesis.

A full blown TK force field slammed directly into Frieda. Frieda braced herself; letting the full force of the TK hit her without being moved an inch. For that was Frieda's main power. Not her vast strength nor her massive rubbery flesh; they were just bi-products of her mutation. Her primary power was that her body had its own force of gravity, and when she braced herself no force on earth could move her unless she wanted it to. "Ha!" she yelled. "You got anything better?"

"How about this!" A red beam of concussive force slammed into the Bulk's back. Turning around she saw that pale Goth boy rogue right behind her, his eyes glowing red from the power he drained from Cyclopa.

"You!" Frieda roared at her house-mate. "What are you doing here?"

"Tryin' ta stop ya from makin' an $$ of yourself," said Rogue. He would have said more but another TK blast from John hit her in the back. "Looks like Ah'm too late."

Rogue gave the Bulk another optic blast, but even combined with John's TK did nothing to move her. "You puny boys with your puny powers!" the fat girl was now in a total maniacal mode. "Even together you can't hurt me?"

"Wanna bet?" Rogue only stepped forward. "Mysterioss never told you what my power is, did he?"

"No," snarled Frieda, "cause I don't care."

Rogue just walked over, and touched the Bulk on her forehead with his ungloved hand. "My power is you power, and I can take more than one!" A massive flow of energy coursed in Rogue, yet strangely Frieda didn't seem the least bit tired. None the less, Rogue hit her in her beefy stomach, sending the big girl several feet in the air and landing in a big pile of scrap.

Frieda got up, unfazed, and ran screaming at Rogue. Surprisingly fast for someone so fat, she managed to grab Rogue by his sleeved arms and slammed him back against the wall. Rogue gave her another optic blast directly in the face but it did nothing but make her angrier. "I've got too much power even for you!" she screamed at him. "I'm the Bulk and you can't move me!"

In Frieda anger at Rogue however, she completely forgot about John-until she felt a great strain in her chest. "My-my heart!"

"I don't need to move you," said John, a strangely dark tone in his voice, "TO HURT YOU!" Frieda's chest felt tighter, as if she was having a heart attack-which she was.

Now anybody who knew John Grey would tell you he is the rare, certified bona fide Nice Guy. The kind of boy who helped old ladies across the street; who volunteered at the local homeless shelter; and whenever one of his football teammates were having trouble keeping up their grades he'd help them study.

But even the nicest guy has his breaking point. And John had tried to be friendly to this girl, had treated her with nothing but kindness when she was made fun of by others even his girlfriend. And now he had been kidnapped, beaten within an inch of his life, and tortured with a medieval torture device by this very same girl. Now it had finally happened. John Grey was _MAD_.

And when a nice guy gets mad, the picture gets ugly. Real ugly.

John moved his hands closer, bringing even more pressure on the organ in question. The pain was so great, she let go of Rogue, clutching her chest.

And Rogue saw his chance.

With all the strength he'd absorbed from her, Rogue punched Frieda in the center of her chest, sending her clear through the roof. With an optic blast, he sent the enormous girl flying even farther, far away from the building.

Frieda sailed through the air, until finally landing with a THUD! In the Bayville city dump. Groggily she got to her feet and looked all around her. Seagulls were all squawking at the massive girl. She no longer felt the pressure on her chest but one emotion kept her from noticing.

Rage.

"DON'T-LAUGH-AT-ME!" she roared to the squawking gulls.

* * *

"Hold still," Rogue said as he placed the visor back on Cyclopa. "Ah've only absorbed a little of your power, so ya should be all right."

Cyclopa rubbed the side of her head; Lady Wolverine had just gotten off of her. And with her adamantium skeleton the feral woman was _much_ heavier than she looked. Cyclopa let out a few quick breaths, then looked at Rogue and smirked. "You truly are an angel, Kate."

Rogue's face screwed up at the line. "Do Ah _look_ like a Kate to you?"

John finished probing with his telepathy. Frieda had landed safely, and had recovered from his telekinetic assault on her. _But I've got no chance of getting through to her now, _he thought glumly.

Turning to Rogue he said, "I suppose I should thank you," he said.

The Southern boy snorted. "Just remember, y'all owe me one," he said before he turned and walked away.

Cyclopa started to walk after her but Lady Wolverine laid a hand on her shoulder. "Let him go; he's troubled and confused. He'll come to us when he's ready."

Cyclopa nodded and turned to look at John. Even through the red lens of a ruby-quartz visor she could see the troubled look on John's face underneath the bruises. "John, is there anything-,"

"Let's just get home," John said. "I'll talk about it later."

* * *

Getting past the sanitarium's security had been even easier than Emmett Frost suspected. Finding a guard who was about to start his shift, Emmett had probed his mind and found which key opened the door. Sneaking up on him, Emmett shifted to his diamond form and slammed a fist on his head, knocking him out cold. Picking up the key set and the guard's ID badge, Emmett carefully enter the door. For the graveyard shift the sanitarium had only a skeleton staff and handful of guards. And the lights were dim; in his diamond form and clad only in white speedos and soft slippers Emmett was practically invisible as long as he stayed in the shadows.

Emmett carefully made his way to the main office; an earlier telepathic scan had told him where it was. He'd also tried to locate Crystal, yet hadn't been able to make his sister's thoughts out from the cacophony of mental voices shouting in his head. He'd have to do this the hard way.

Finding the office, he waited until the head warden had left to go to the bathroom before he entered. Scanning through the filing cabinet, he soon found the file marked FROST, CRYSTAL.

Emmett looked down and found the room where they had her. But reading further, he found something else. _No,_ he thought. _Not today. Please, let this be wrong, not today._

Only iron self-control kept the young man from bursting out and rushing for Crystal's room. Emmett quickly replaced the file and closed the cabinet. Just in time. For the warden had returned.

Not noticing Emmett, the man simply sat down at his desk. Carefully, Emmett managed to get to the door without being seen, and walked out. As quickly yet quietly as he could, Emmett made his way through the darkened halls to Cell 24B. Crystal's cell.

Making sure no one was around, Emmett fumbled the keys he'd taken from the guard and opened the door. Entering, he could see moonlight shining through the single window on the figure laying on top of the hospital bed. Despite the dim light, Emmett recognized the face of Crystal Frost, his sister.

Hooked up to her right arm was an IV unit and to her left a heartbeat monitor. The beat was steady, yet looking to the left Emmett could see that side of her head was shaved. And the freshly stitched scars of a recent lobotomy.

_No,_ Emmett thought in horror. Coming out of his diamond form Emmett tried to probe into her mind. Nothing. No thoughts, no emotions. Just a blank space. Crystal Frost, Emmett's sister, the only member of his rich, image obsessed family, the one sibling who'd ever shown Emmett any real affection, was now effectively brain dead. All because she'd caused the family embarrassment.

"_DAMN YOU DAD!" _Emmett roared at the top of his lungs. Reverting to his diamond form, Emmett tore off the door of Crystal's cell.

Suddenly light flooded the hallways. "What's going on there!" several voices shouted. Emmett saw several security guards clad in white rushing at him with nightsticks-even in a minimum security asylum where few of the patients were considered dangerous they would not run the risk of letting the guards have guns. He simply grabbed the two closest by the arms and tossed them at their compatriots. He didn't bother to see if they were injured. Now, he just wanted to leave this place; and inflict as much pain on Winston Frost as his father had inflicted on him.

He didn't bother trying to go through the doorway; he simply punched through the ways. Any other time and he would have marveled at his strength, now he didn't feel anything. Or want to.

The bright lights and loud screams of police sirens roared through the night; the warden must have called in the police as soon as he'd heard the commotion. The cars formed a barricade in front of the asylum, and a thousand lights shined on the living diamond. "Freeze whoever-_What the $$%^# are you!"_

Emmett did not answer but continued walking towards the police cars. _"Stop or we will open fire!" _the policeman with the bull horn. Emmett only continued walking. Several rifles and handguns barks out bullets. All bounced harmlessly off of Emmett's diamond skin.

Emmett only continued to walk towards the police cars. He would get to Boston, and find his father, and see to it that Winston Frost never hurt anybody again.

The police were still firing when all of a sudden their guns were ripped out from their hands. As if by some unseen force, the firearms turned toward their wielders. Emmett stopped, as amazed as the police were.

Several light feminine chuckles sounded from above. The lights all turned upwards and both the police and Emmett looked to see a woman dressed in red and purple armor with long white hair flowing out from underneath a Corinthian type Greek helmet floating in mid-air.

The woman let out several more laughs. "Humans and their guns."

* * *

Charlene Xavier had called John's football coach and told them John had been jumped and beaten by someone who held a grudge against him, and John's injuries were such that he'd have to miss out on the Friday night game but should be able to play for the rest of the season.

John had spent most of that Friday moping around on the couch, holding an ice bag against his head. Finally, after she'd dropped Kit and Katrina off for the second day of the convention, Selena sat down next to him.

"How you feeling, John?"

"Like I've just played all the games of the season simultaneously," John groaned. "Or like that one time we'd snuck into Ms. Logan's room, made off with a couple of six packs, and got ourselves wasted."

"Oh yeah." Selena remembered that all right; the hangover she'd gotten hurt nearly as bad as the following Danger Room sessions Ms. Logan had put them through as punishment. "I have to say, you look a lot worse now than you did then."

"Tell me about it." With a grunt of pain, John sat up and looked down at his shoes. "And I really screwed up with Frieda."

"How so?"

"Remember how I told the professor last night that I probed into her mind and found Mysterioss showing Frieda yearbook pictures of me and Deanna?" Selena nodded. "Well, I also found something else-Frieda had gotten a crush on me."

"Yeah, like a really _BIG _crush," Selena snarked, then sobered when John glowered at her. "Okay, okay, I guess fat jokes are in bad taste."

"Strange," John said. "I can read minds; I can feel other people's emotions. I felt Frieda's pain and hurt, yet I was blind to how she was feeling about me." He gave a small laugh then winced. "As I was chained up, she accused me of finding her as repulsive as everyone else did. And the truth is I _am_ physically attracted to good looking women."

"Something you have in common with at least 90% of the species that possesses a Y chromosome." Selena placed a hand on John's shoulder. "Look John, you are a nice guy. But even nice guys aren't perfect. You were kind to Frieda; you tried to be the friend she needed. And were you upset by how Deanna and the others treated her?" John nodded. "And from what you told the professor, you can see how Frieda would come to the kind of conclusions she did, can't you? That's hardly your fault. Look," she stared John right in the eyes, "Kit was constantly bullied by the jocks at his old school. And Katrina's had to hide most of her life because of her appearance. Would either of them do anything like that?" John shook his head. "Frieda's had a rough life. But that hardly gives her the right to do to you what she did. And from what you read from her mind, it's obvious that Mysterioss is manipulating her. As for being attracted to someone by their looks? That just means you're a normal guy."

"Maybe," John said. "Anyway, I've called Deanna. I've already cleared it with the professor; she's coming over in a few minutes. And I'm going to have a little talk with her about how she treated Frieda."

_Really? _Excitement jumped through Selena, although she did her best not to show it. _Are you finally going to ditch the bitch?_

The doorbell to the mansion rang. Selena went to open the door, and saw Deanna Matthews standing right in front of her. "Hello Shades," the head cheerleader said in her not quite polite tone.

"Hello, Matthews," Selena replied with the same tone. Deanna was wearing a white and blue striped tube top and denim hot pants that would just barely be considered acceptable by the Bayville High dress code, and she was wearing makeup that would have suited if not a professional at least a high ranking amateur.

"Oh Johnny!" she cried as soon as she looked at John. "Who did this to you?"

"Some guy who held a grudge against me." John gave the same alibi that Charlene Xavier had given his coach. This was _technically_ true, if you used guy in non-specific gender neutral sense.

"Oh, baby, who was it?" Deanna was giving her sexy sympathetic girl voice. Selena wanted to barf.

"Someone I didn't know as well as I thought I did," muttered John. "Now please, we need to talk. In private."

"Sure thing, honey." Deanna followed John as he got up from the sofa and walked to Professor Xavier's study, then closed the door. Despite knowing John anted privacy Selena stood just outside the door, listening to their conversation.

"Deanna, what you said to Frieda-,"

"Oh John I thought about it and you were right. I really shouldn't have teased her like that."

"No you shouldn't have."

"Those bruises on your face look so awful. Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

"Deanna please-," then Selena heard the unmistakable sound of a kiss.

"I am sorry about making fun of her." Kiss. "Believe me I am."

"It's not-," KISS, "really me-," KISS, "you should be-," KISS, "apologizing to-." John's voice trailed off, disappearing into the unmistakable sound of two teenagers making out.

_Oh, you're a normal guy all right, John Grey! _Selena thought as she walked away in disgust. _Men!_

* * *

"I'm sorry," said the middle aged woman called Mind Mistress said. She had accompanied Magnetrix to the asylum after Emmett Frost, and after Magnetrix had snatched the guns from the policemen's hands, had used her powerful telepathic abilities to wake up the asylum's patients. Tweaking a little further after the Mistress of Magnetism had opened the locks to the cells, Mind Mistress managed to stir them up to frenzy and cause a riot. Afterwards, rewriting the asylum staff and the police's memories to think it was all a simple asylum riot had been fairly easy-for her. "There is nothing I can do for your sister."

"Nothing?" Emmett was gripping Crystal's hand; Magnetrix had snatched her from her cell and using her powers to place metal bracelets and anklets on the girl, walked her out like a puppet to the van waiting nearby and drove off to this secret location. "No, I won't accept that!"

"Parts of her brain have been damaged beyond repair; essentially her mind is gone." She grabbed Emmett by the chin and brought his face to eye level with hers. "I understand your grief boy but I will not give you false hope. I repeat nothing can be done for your sister; essentially she is now a vegetable."

Emmett's body turned back into his diamond form. "My father will pay for what he's done!"

"Yes he will." Emmett and Mind Mistress looked to see Magnetrix entering the infirmary with the bestial looking man Emmett had seen before called Sabretooth and a conservatively dressed woman who Emmett had seen accompany Magnetrix a lot. "And we will see to it."

Emmett tried to look Magnetrix in the eye. Seeing her stare back at him, he felt something he hadn't truly felt since Adrian had bullied him as a child. He felt intimidated. "Magnetrix, I-,"

"You will address me as Mistress." Emmett nodded. After coming here he tried to probe Magnetrix's mind and found he couldn't; Mind Mistress had explained that her helmet was designed to block telepathy. "As I have said, I will see to it that your sister is avenged. I know how it is to have someone you care for taken, tortured, then lost to you forever." As she said that, she rubbed the sleeve of her right arm where, as a little girl a number had been tattooed on her. "I give you my word we will keep her alive and as comfortable as we can. Now leave; Ms. Derwin will see to your sister's care."

Emmett didn't want to leave Crystal yet he couldn't find the courage to defy Magnetrix either. Putting on as stoic a face as he could, he walked out of the infirmary, followed by Mind Mistress.

As soon as they were gone, Sabretooth growled, "Why're you keeping her here, Mistress? Seems to me the smart thing to do would be put her out of her misery; all she'd do is waste resources." He wasn't worried that either telepath would learn what he was thinking; the walls of this room and several others were so designed to keep private conversations-and thoughts-private.

"The boy has a very strong attachment to her," Magnetrix replied, "which provides us with a means of insuring his loyalty. The cost of caring for her will be minimal, and outweighed by the benefit mentioned."

"Very well," grunted the feral mutant. "This boy's father-you want me to handle him?"

"No, Sabretooth," Magnetrix said flatly. "This is something that will call for finesse and subtlety-neither of which is one of your stronger suits." Sabretooth only gave a small chuckle; that was true enough. "Gambette has told me of an assassin who will be able to make this seem like an accident or natural causes-," Sabretooth smiled; while that was not his style he could admire someone who could manage that, "-and most importantly is not a mutant." Seeing Sabretooth and Ms. Derwin both raise an acquisitive eyebrow, she explained, "I cannot risked Charlene Xavier learning of my connection in this affair. The best way is to hire an assassin who cannot be detected by Cerebro."

"This-assassin," Ms. Derwin said, "does he know-about-?"

Magnetrix nodded. "Yes does. He has dealt with mutants before, both as clients and as targets. In truth he is the type I prefer to deal with, for Orestes Natchios only cares about money."

Meanwhile in another part of the base, Emmett was listening to Mind Mistress. "There is so much I could teach you boy," she said. "Your telepathic gifts have great potential, I can sense it. Likely even better than my own."

"But-but you can project illusions and rewrite people's memories or control their minds," Emmett protested. "I can't do any of those things."

"Only because you haven't been taught how," Mind Mistress said. "Oh Emmett, you have such potential. If only I had the time-but I do not. Mind Mistress requires that I be away in service to her. But there is a place where we can send you."

"Where?" Emmett asked suspiciously.

"In Bayville New York a colleague of our named Mysterioss is gathering young mutants like yourself. He is the principal of the local high school; you will be able to attend with the others and train with them in preparation.

"Preparation?" Emmett asked. "Preparation for what?"

"For a war." Mind Mistress leaned in closer and stared firmly into Emmett's eyes. "Make no mistake, my boy. One day, the rest of mankind will learn of us. And will they do, they will either try to exploit us-or exterminate us. Unless we are ready. That is why Magnetrix wants to send you with my two sons to Bayville."

"Your sons?"

"Yes." A soft look came over Mind Mistress's face. "Martin is about your age and a telepath albeit with rather limited abilities. However he can create illusions far better than I can-and even make them solid! Morgan is 13, and his powers have only recently manifested." She gave a small sigh. "And let's say he is not happy about them."

End of Chapter 10

_John and Deanna at the end-what can I say? Nice guys are suckers for feminine wiles. Even if they can read minds._

_Mind Mistress is obviously Mastermind gender-bent. As for her sons, Martin is a male composite of Mastermind's two older daughters Mastermind II and Lady Mastermind while Morgan is a male version of one of the newer X-girls whose mutation wouldn't be so bad for a girl. But for a guy it would really, really suck!_

_As for Orestes Natchios-try to figure out who he is a male version of!_

_Speed and Spyke is coming up next. And guess what I'm throwing in to increase the enmity between 'Yvonne' and "Pietra!' _


	11. Chapter 11

X-Men Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anybody else involved in their production. No money is being made here so please don't sue me. Instead sue whoever decided to cancel Wolverine and the X-Men after only one season!

Chapter 11

The moon hung down over the Xavier Estate that Sunday night. Kit Pryde saw the gazebo overlooking the cliff, dimly but surely. Slowly, carefully, he made his way to the white structure where Katrina Wagner was sitting, reading a large leather-bound book.

"You can read in the dark?" Kit asked."

"Ah, Kit. Ja, I can." Katrina closed her book and stood up. "Vhat are you doing here?"

"I was just wondering where you were," Kit shrugged. "John sensed you were here; please don't be angry at him."

"I'm not. It's just-sometimes I like to come here, vhen I need to be alone. Vell, alone vith God."

"Oh." Kit knew Katrina was Catholic, and that she went to Mass this morning at a local Catholic Church. Selena also told him Katrina often went to confession, especially when something was troubling her. "What're you reading there?"

"Oh." Katrina held up the large book. "_Der Heiligen Schriften._ The Holy Bible, you vould say in English."

"What were you reading?"

Katrina spoke something in German but sounded different than what she normally used. More formal, and archaic. "_Gott_ does not see as man does. Man looks at the outvard appearance, but _Gott _looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16.7" Katrina let out a sigh. "Did I ever tell you about-the first time I teleported?"

"No," Kit said, remembering how terrified he was that night when he phased through his bedroom floor.

"It vas during my first Holy Communion." A few of Kit's friends at his old school had been Catholic, and he'd understood that for Catholic children a first communion was a ceremony of special significance, much like his own bar Mitzvah had been. "All my life I'd looked like this. But my parents, their house vas several kilometers outside the village of Witzeldorf, and vhenever they took me into town for festivals or to attend church they'd vrap my face in bandages and bundle my tail under my dress or pants, and put mittens on my hands; they'd told people they had adopted a severely deformed child. Only a handful of aunts, uncles and cousins knew the truth about my appearance. And Father Johan, our family priest.

"Anyvay, I had turned eight, and vas about to partake in the ceremony of the bread and vine for the first time. Obviously, ve couldn't do it at the church so ve had it in a cave near my family's house. I had just received the _Eucharist_ and drank the _sanguine Christi; _I felt such joy, such ecstasy. And then I disappeared in a cloud of smoke. And found myself right in the middle of Witzeldorf. In my communion dress. Without my mittens or wrappings."

Kit tried to imagine an eight year old girl with Katrina's unique appearance, in a white dress and a appearing right in the middle of a crowded German village. "Ah, was it like in the Frankenstein movie, when those villagers grabbed the pitchforks and torches?"

Katrina hung her head. "Ja. I heard cries of _'Augesflipter!' 'Teufel!' 'das Ungeheuer!'" _Kit didn't know what those German words meant but figured they weren't compliments. The pain in Katrina's voice was making her accent thicker. "They chased me all across the town-through alleyvays und dark corners. I tried to evade them-and found myself teleporting again. Only a few feet at a time-until I found myself right in the middle of the church.

"There vas only vun person there-Frau Schneider, Father Johan's housekeeper. Before, vhen ve came for Mass or services, she saw me covered up, and she vas so kind, and alvays had a smile for me-but now she saw as I am me and all she saw-." Katrina stopped and buried her face in her hands. "She screamed. She'd grabbed the broom she'd been sweeping vith, and rushed at me. All I thought was how much I vanted to be back in my parents arms-and suddenly I vas back in the cave."

"That-that must have been awful." Kit couldn't think of anything else to say.

"It vas," Katrina nodded. "Father Johan, he took me aside, and he read that passage to me, and said the vhile _der himmilisch Vater _could see into peoples' hearts, mankind vas not so fortunate. That my appearance frightened them. I asked him why _Gott_ would make me look like this. He said he didn't know. But that He must have a reason; that _Gott_ has a reason for everything. Ve might not understand vhy or how, but there is a purpose for it." Katrina wiped at her cheek. "A veek later, Frau Schneider came to our house vith Father Johan. She told Mutter she vanted to see me. I came out, as I am-and she fell down on her knees, begging me to forgive her."

"Did you?"

"Ja. Vhat point to being angry?" Katrina looked back up at the gazebo roof. "But it vas then I realized, I vould have to hide for the rest of my life. Even this," she touched the holo-watch and she suddenly appeared like a normal human girl, "and the convention vhere everyone thought I vas just vearing a costume-,"

Kit was shocked, all the time he thought Katrina was enjoying herself acting out at the convention with the rest of the cosplayers. "Katrina, I'm sorry if-,"

"_Nein _Kit. Don't get me wrong, I had a vonderful time. It felt so good, just to be out there, as myself vithout needing either my old bandages or my vatch. But in a vay, I'm still hiding."

Kit sat down next to Katrina and took her hand in his. Maybe it was the way he felt Katrina's pain and wanted to comfort her, but he really liked holding her hand. _Maybe I just have a fetish for furry blue German girls with three fingered hands and tails. _"Katrina, I'm no rabbi and I'm certainly no Catholic priest. But one thing I do know. Katrina, you're kind, you have a great sense of humor, you're a heck of an RP gamer, and you make a dynamite cosplayer."

"Vhat are you talking about?" Katrina wondered. It felt good this way, to be alone with a boy and holding hands, having him sit next to her. Almost like when Father Johan had held her that day after she escaped from the mob and let her cry on his shoulder. Yet different somehow.

"What I'm saying Katrina," Kit said as he touched her fuzzy cheek, "show people that. Don't hide the _wunderbar-_," Kit did his best to pronounce the German word for 'wonderful,' "-girl that you are underneath your pointy ears and fur."

Katrina flashed the smiled showing her fangs. "Oh Kit," she said. As if it had a mind of its own, Katrina's tail wrapped behind Kit's neck, and pulled his face to hers. "You're so sweet." Katrina leaned in and slowly, carefully, pressed her lips against his.

* * *

Mysterioss picked up the remote and clicked off the television set. "Hey Boss man, we was watching that!" Tonya Tolansky shouted.

"Well, tough," the shape shifter replied. "You've got some new teammates arriving, and I'd like for you to meet them."

Tonya, Frieda, and Lana got up from the sofa they were sitting at and followed Mysterioss to the entrance door. The door opened, and in walked a blond boy dressed in immaculate white, followed by another boy also blond but looked more like he was cut from the same mold as Lana in a brown leather jacket and faded torn blue jeans. After them came a rather stern looking fortysomething brunette woman with a junior high aged boy dressed like the second blond but with a wool cap covering his head. The latter's feature were so fine and delicate that he could easily be mistaken for a girl.

"I'll say!" said Tonya as she walked up to the boy in white. "'bout time we got us some boys here!"

"Yeah I'll say," agreed Lana. "Can you believe this outfit's called the 'Brotherhood,' yet the only guy we've had so far is the southern reject from the Rocky Horror Picture Show?" She thumbed back at Rogue, who'd come down the stairs from his room.

"How many times have Ah told ya gals Ah hate that movie?" Rogue snarled. He'd been upstairs in his room reading the latest Stephen King Novel when he heard the door open and came down to see what the commotion was all about.

"Good of you to join us, Rogue." Mysterioss looked back at the new arrivals. "This is Mind Mistress; her two sons Martin," the older boy in the leather jacket gave a nod, "and Morgan will be joining us, as well as young Emmett Frost."

Emmett Frost looked around the house where he'd be staying-at least for the time being. It seemed nice enough-not like the Frost Family mansion, but certainly better than that loft he'd been staying at in New York.

"All right," said Tonya as she edged closer to Emmett. Emmett backed away, suddenly aware of the smell of perfume making a vain attempt to cover the foul reek emanating from this girl. "What can you'se boys do?"

Emmett turned into his diamond form. "That's it?" snorted Lana? "You turn into glass?"

"Diamond," said Emmett unperturbed as he reverted to human form._ I'm also a telepath, _he thought into each of their brains.

"You mean we got a mind reader?" said Tonya. "Cool!"

"Two, actually," said Martin. "While unlike Emmett I can't project my thoughts into your heads, I can read them like a comic book. For instance, I know you three girls were watching _Sex in the City _when we came in and you," he said as he turned to Rogue, "were reading the latest line in the Dark Tower series."

Rogue just scowled. "Next y'all want to look into my mind," he snarled at both Emmett and Martin, "ask."

"I can also do this. Martin gave a twirling gesture with his left hand and suddenly a cloud of spiders appeared all over Rogue. "Get 'em off of me!" Rogue shouted while he swatted at the crawling arachnids-he hated spiders. "Get em' off-," Martin waved his hand again, and the spiders disappeared.

"Simply an illusion," the blonde telepath said, "which is my other ability."

"They were no illusion!" Rogue shouted. "Ah felt them!"

"Simply an example of how real I can make them," Martin grinned.

"Okay, now what about you?" Lana asked Morgan. "What can you do little guy?"

Morgan just scowled at them. Mind Mistress sighed. "He gets like this, she said as he took off his wool cap revealing a head of hair that was thick and curly-and bright pink.

The girls all guffawed; even Rogue snorted a little. "They sent you here because you've got pink hair?"

"There's a lot more to it, I'm afraid." Mind Mistress removed Morgan's leather jacket to reveal a pair of bright, multi-colored butterfly wings.

Now Tonya broke into peals of laughter. "You're a freakin' _fairy?"_

In an almost soprano voice the previously quiet Morgan shouted, "Don't call me a _fairy!" _With surprising quickness, he grabbed Tonya by the collar of her shirt and flew up near the ceiling. Hovering in mid-air, Morgan let go with his left hand, and blew some strange pink dust from his palm into Tonya's face.

"Hey! Hey!" Tonya shouted as she looked down. "How'd we get over the Grand Canyon!" Morgan just smiled as he let Tonya go and she shrieked "NOOOOOOO!" until she landed with a THUD! On her butt. "Hey, what just happened," she said as she found herself back in the living room. "I was fallin into the Grand Canyon, I was!"

"Merely a hallucination," Mind Mistress said with no small amount of pride in her voice. "They tend to vary, depending on Morgan's moods, although they're usually the frightening kind."

"Indeed," replied Mysterioss. These three boys all looked like they could be very useful. "You must tell me more tonight, Mind Mistress. We have much to talk about."

"Indeed we do, Raymond."

* * *

Few who knew Ms. Logan would have thought she'd be the type to get excited a high school girl's basketball game.

"C'mon kid!" she cried as she saw her boyfriend's niece, an average sized African American girl with unusual blonde hair just past her shoulders, grab the ball after the opposing team had made a basket, gaining the lead of 82 to 81, with less than two minutes to play. "C'mon, Daniels!" Over here!" One of Yvonne Daniels' teammates, a tall, slender girl with silver white hair, was calling from just below the basket. Yvonne passed, and the girl grabbed the ball. Turning with what seemed remarkable speed the silver haired girl jumped up and tossed the ball.

And missed.

The entire crowd in the bleachers was roaring at the girls; the one calm person amidst the mob of spectators, sitting with his girlfriend, his sister, and brother in law was Orion Munro. "You know, you could be showing a little emotion here," Gregory Daniels told him. "I swear, you would stay calm in an earthquake."

"Which is precisely when on should be calm," Orion replied. "Besides, I doubt the girls would appreciate having their game ruined by a tornado."

"Point taken," Gregory replied, then turned back to the game. The silver haired girl who'd failed the last shot had just grabbed the ball and was heading back down the court with less than one minute left to play.

"Pietra!" the girls' coach cried. "Pietra, pass to Yvonne. Do it now!" The girl's pretty face turned up in a scowl as reluctantly she passed the ball to Yvonne.

"C'mon Yvonne!" her parents cried. "Shoot! Shoot!" Even Orion joined in, doing his best to cheer for his niece while holding his emotions in check.

All eyes on her, Yvonne Daniels made the shot. As she fell back, a number of bone spikes emerged from her wrist, catching her so off guard that she stumbled and fell back as she landed shredding the wooden gym floor.

None of this was noticed, as the spectators were all focused on the ball that fell through the hoop just as the buzzer sounded meaning a victory for the home team.

Just as the buzzer sounded, Yvonne Daniels retracted the spikes into her wrists. Had anybody seen her? She assumed the worst as all her teammates began crowding around her.

"Congratulations, Yvonne!" Coach Fenton cried as Yvonne's teammates lifted her off the ground and carried her before the crowd, the people cheering and even the opposing team coming to congratulate her. Yvonne basked in the glory, forgetting the incident just a second before. This was her moment, her time. Besides, nobody had noticed.

Except for her uncle.

* * *

Inside the girls' locker room, Yvonne had just finished changing out of her uniform. "Hey, great game girl," Delilah Hendricks, one of the team's guard said, patting Yvonne on the back.

"Thanks," Yvonne replied.

"Hogging all the glory, huh?" Yvonne looked to see Pietra Maximoff, dressed like she was about to go out for the evening. "I should have just made the shot myself."

"Hey, that was a great pass," said Yvonne, willing to give credit where it was due, "but there's no way you could have made it down the court in time." Yvonne turned to close her locker-and blinked to see Pietra right in front of her.

"Girl, I've got moves you can't even imagine," the white haired girl sniped. "And I'm tired of holding back just to make gals like you look good." She sneered. "Or is this your way of paying me back for Derek?"

Yvonne did her best to steel her face. Six months ago she had started to date Derek Peters, a very popular senior. It had gone very well, yet when school started Derek started pressuring Yvonne to have sex and Yvonne didn't feel she was ready for that yet. After weeks of pestering her Derek backed down, but when he took her to the homecoming dance Derek told her he'd need to go to his car for a bit. After waiting fifteen minutes Yvonne decided to go after him, and found him in the backseat. With Pietra. And she was giving him what Yvonne wouldn't. "Look, I'm over Derek," Yvonne said. "You're perfectly free to add him to your boy-toy collection."

Pietra shrugged. "I got bored with him. And if you'll excuse me, she said as she took out a compact and freshened up her lipstick, "I've got dates tonight." She sauntered out of the locker room, her hips swishing as she walked.

As soon as Pietra left a short, well stacked woman with long thick black hair came in. "You the only one in here?" she asked Yvonne.

"Yeah, sure."

The strange woman opened the door. "All right, 'Rion, everything's decent."

"Sometimes, I just don't understand you Westerners," said Orion Munro. The African village where he grew up, men and women often went about naked when the weather was too hot or humid and intermingled.

"Unc!" Yvonne rushed up to her uncle and gave him a big hug. "You came!"

"And miss my favorite niece's big came?" Orion chuckled. "Not a chance."

Yvonne turned to the strange woman. "So you're the Ms. Logan my uncle's been telling mom about."

Ms. Logan grinned. "Yep. And every word you're uncle's said about me is likely true; both the good and the bad."

"Ms. Logan!" Orion said, and now Yvonne was sure she saw her uncle blushing.

"Oh Unc, I'm not a little girl anymore. I know just what she's talking about."

"How much do you know?" Orion asked a mocking wariness in his voice.

"Oh, c'mon, Unc, I didn't mean it like that," Yvonne said.

"Anyway," said Orion as he sat down on a locker room bench, "remember, Yvonne, what we discussed-before?"

"Oh yeah yeah," Yvonne waved her hand dismissively. "Look Unc, I've got it covered."

"Do you?" asked Orion. "Yvonne, during the game, I saw-,"

"Okay, so it's not perfected." Now Yvonne was starting to get annoyed. "Look Unc, I like it here in New York, I don't want to pack up and move somewhere else." She extended several spikes from her wrist. "Anybody messes with me-bam!"

"Yvonne, this is serious," Orion continued. "Sometimes x-gene mutations can seriously affect you physically."

"Your hair," Ms. Logan said after sniffing, "you didn't dye it, did you."

Orion smiled. "My girlfriend has a very sharp nose."

"So what?" said Yvonne. "Who's gonna care if they see a black gal with blond hair? It's not like I have lobster claws or turning into a green ape or something."

"Yvonne, it could simply be an indicator of things to come. If you would-,"

"Look Unc, if my skin turns purple or I start farting poison gas, I'll give you call. But for now, I've got this under control so if you would just please-ah ah ah-CHOO!" As Yvonne sneezed, bone spikes shot out of her body in all directions, embedding tin the lockers, the wall-and one into Ms. Logan's neck.

The feral woman simply grunted as she pulled the bony missile out from her neck, the wound healing as soon as it was out not even leaving a scar. "You're awfully lucky you're my boyfriend's niece," she snarled at Yvonne.

Yvonne hung her head. "I'm busted, huh?"

Orion nodded. "Big time, young lady."

* * *

"You wanted to see us professor?" John Grey asked as he and Selena Summers entered the Cerebro Room.

"Yes," said Charlene Xavier. "As you likely know, Tonya Tolansky, Frieda Dukes, Lana Alvers and Rogue have been staying together at a boarding house on the edge of town."

"Yeah, so what's new?" Selena shrugged.

"Cerebro has detected three new mutants living among them." Charles Xavier. She clicked with a mouse, making the computer give a picture of each and a profile of them and their abilities.

"So they got themselves a couple of telepaths, huh?" Selena said as she leaned in closer.

"Yes. Of particular concern to me is this one called Emmett Frost." The bald woman typed at the Cerebro keyboard and brought up an online edition of the Boston Globe. "Apparently, for some unknown reason, young Emmett had attacked his father and beat him nearly to death. After he then ran away he was disowned and apparently," Xavier typed some more, and brought up a different article, "a riot broke out a week later at a mental institution where Emmett's sister was supposedly undergoing treatment for drug addiction. After the riot was suppressed, young Crystal Frost was found to have disappeared. And three days afterwards," and now yet another article appeared, "Winston Frost, Emmett's father, dies by choking on popcorn at a baseball game."

"You don't think this guy had something to do with either of those things, do you?" asked John. "I mean, his father choked on a piece of popcorn. How could he have set that up?"

"I _could_ use my telepathy to do such a thing," said Xavier. "So could a few other telepaths I know of. You could do it yourself John, if you had the proper training. Still, Emmett's young age and the reading Cerebro gives of his current power level make that unlikely." Charlene Xavier removed the headpiece and placed her wig on her head. "I'm only telling you this so you will be wary. Remember, Lana Alvers had been selling answers to exams, and Tonya Tolansky is a petty thief."

"Not to mention what Frieda did to John," Selena piped up.

John wished Selena hadn't brought that up; he still blamed himself for how badly things had gone. And using his telekinesis to nearly give Frieda a heart attack-John didn't need to be a mind reader to see that the big girl's hatred for them was now full and total.

"Indeed," said Xavier. "I'm telling you now, if you see them at school, don't cause a confrontation. Simply be cautious. Remember, Rogue has never been in any sort of major trouble, and that we can't risk being exposed.

We understand, professor," replied John, and Selena nodded.

What Charlene Xavier didn't tell them was that the two other boys were the sons of Mind Mistress, one of the few telepaths who was nearly as powerful as Xavier herself, and had used her telepathy in the aid of blackmail, extortion, insider trading, and numerous other business related crimes. Nor that the house where the other young mutants were residing was owned by Raymond Darkholme, the principal of Bayville High School.

* * *

"Ah geez!" cried Yvonne. School had just ended and she had opened her locker to get her purse, only to find all the money inside her pocketbook gone. "Not again."

"What's up, Daniels?"

Yvonne saw Pietra appear as if from out of nowhere. "Pietra, where'd you come from?" She could have sworn the silver haired girl was nowhere near a second ago.

"That's something you should ask on the basketball court, girlfriend."

"Hey, I know you're fast." _In more ways than one, you slut_. "You were really busting some great moves at the game the other night."

"So, you admit I'm better than you?"

"Hey, I said you were faster, not better. I've got some tricks of my own."

"Sure." Faster than Yvonne could blink, Pietra grabbed the pocketbook from her hands. "Like getting ripped off for the second time this month. What's up with that?"

"I have no idea," Yvonne said bitterly. "After I changed the combination too!"

"Sounds like a bona fide mystery," Pietra cackled. "Maybe you better call Fred and Velma and get the Mystery Machine."

Yvonne let out a small laugh at the Scooby Doo reference. "Well, whoever it is, I'm going to catch this slime ball who's been braking into the lockers."

"Sure you will." Pietra took out her own pocketbook and removed a thick wad of bills. "But you're going to need some bait."

"Hey, thanks!" _Maybe she's not so bad after all, _Yvonne thought. "I'll pay you back on allowance day." The two girls shook hands, and Yvonne put the bills in her pocketbook. "Catch you later," Yvonne said as walked away.

"Not your very best day, girlfriend," Pietra laughed darkly. "You'll never catch me!"

* * *

"AAAGGGHHH!" Mysterioss heard Mind Mistress's younger son growl from the bathroom. It was the third time he'd heard the boy shrieking today after his mother left, and he wanted to see what the matter was.

Opening the door, he found the boy standing in front of the mirror, with several boxes and bottles lying to the side. "Trying to dye you hair, are you?"

"It just won't stick!" Morgan growled. The boy's hair was still pink, although not quite as bright, and now streaks of black ran through the pink locks.

"It looks quite good," Mysterioss commented. "In fact, I'd say the Goth-punk looks suits you. Besides, I've already made arrangements to have you transferred to Bayville junior high, and they are fairly lax about the dress code. I doubt you'll be the only boy there with pink hair.

"I don't want pink hair!" Morgan sat on the toilet and sulked. "I hate this, I hate all of it."

"You really hate being a mutant so bad?"

"No. It's just-I hate this stupid pink hair, and these girly butterfly wings!" Morgan took off his jacket, his wings stretched out full and bright.

Before she left Mind Mistress had had a talk with Mysterioss about how even before his mutation activated, the boy frequently got mistaken for a girl and the way it made him act out. "You're mother told me about all the things you've done before coming here," Mysterioss said. "3 counts of shoplifting, 8 of vandalism. Numerous fights all your previous schools-which was probably what caused you to get kicked out of them. I must say, I'm impressed." Morgan just looked at his feet. "But I have to warn you, I don't have the clout at Bayville Junior that I do at Bayville High were I am the principal. Those things your mother told me about-I cannot allow you to get away with that here. For the time being the humans are in charge and we have to go by their rules, or we risk getting exposed. If you get arrested if those wings show up in a strip search, the police and juvenile courts will be the least of your worries. Your mother won't be able to protect you from Magnetrix's wrath if that happens."

"I'm not afraid of that old witch."

"Then you are a stupid boy," Mysterioss said flatly. "Because I am." A softer look came over the shape-shifter's face. "Now tell me, do you hate being a mutant so much?"

"No." Morgan closed his eyes. "I always kind of knew I would be, I mean, my mom's one and so is my brother. It's just-,"

"You hate the way your mutation turned out." Morgan nodded. "Why? You can fly, and you can create hallucinations in people. So what if you have butterfly wings? There are _male_ butterflies after all. Tell me, do my blue skin and gold eyes make me any less of a man?"

"No."

"Neither should your unique attributes." Mysterioss had been watching the HBO series Game of Thrones. In his mind the Stark family embodied the same sort of naiveté and idealism as Charlene Xavier-and in the end it was getting them all killed. But there was a piece of useful advice the Lannister dwarf Tyrian had given Eddard Stark's bastard son Jon Snow. "One day, humans will know about us. And when that day comes, which would you rather do? Hide and cower, or fight?"

"Fight." Morgan said.

"Good. Then instead of hating how your mutation turned embrace it. Armor yourself in it. Make it your strength, and it can never be used to hurt you, my Dark Pixie."

* * *

"You just don't give up, do you Unc?" Yvonne had gotten home and found her uncle with two other teenagers from the Xavier institute, and seated with her parents around the living room coffee table.

"That's because your uncle loves you, and he's concerned," said John Grey. "Heck, we all are."

"This certainly explains why you've been coming home with holes in all your shirts," said Vy Daniels. Gregory Daniels just sat quietly next to his wife, taking it all in. It was one thing to know your brother in law was a mutant with strange powers, quite another if it was your own child.

"It's really not so bad, Mrs. Daniels," said Selena. "Having special powers can be pretty cool sometimes."

"Oh yeah, Shades?" Yvonne snarled. "Why don't you show me what you've got that's so 'cool?'?"

"I-can't," Selena said.

"Selena's powers aren't exactly what you'd call indoor friendly," said John. "But here." He gave a wave of his hand, and slowly the coffee table lifted up off the floor.

Yvonne just snorted. "Whatever. But I like it here, and I'm not going to some home for freaks. Now if you'll excuse, I've got school stuff to do." Without another word, Yvonne walked up the stairs and slammed the door to her room.

Selena slumped back into her chair. "We really need to work on our sales pitch."

John stood up. "She's headed out the window!" He, Selena, Orion, and Yvonne's parents got up from their chairs to see Yvonne on her skateboard, going off into the night.

* * *

Yvonne made her way to her school, and, with a trick one of her friends showed her, jimmied open the locks. Huddling herself in a corner before her locker with the bait Pietra had given her, Yvonne whispered "Okay, sneak thief. "The spike girl is ready."

Suddenly a gust of wind rushed past Yvonne, nearly sucking the wind right out of her. The combo locks on the lockers spun, and the doors all opened.

"What the %$%%$$*%* is going on!" Yvonne cried as contents from the lockers spun around in a tornado, dropping around her. She tried hooting spikes form her wrists yet they only managed to form a massive wall around her like a cage. Suddenly the wind stopped and standing right in front of her wearing green and silver tights, was her silver-haired basketball teammate. "Pietra!"

Pietra Maximoff smiled. "Call me Quicksilver." She posed like a model on a runway. "Like the outfit? Made it myself. Took me only about a quarter second." She touched the long bony spikes in front of Yvonne. "Well, seems my old gal pal has a few tricks of her own. But as usual," she whirled around sending the spikes away and appearing behind Yvonne, "not as good as mine."

"You-you have powers too?" Yvonne asked."

"Duh. Finally." Pietra shoved Yvonne towards the lockers. "Just remember, Daniels, anything you can do I can do better."

"But why? Why would you want to rip me off?"

"Kicks! Look, when you live as fast as I do," Pietra ran off, grabbed some more purses, and dumped them around her classmate, "there aren't enough things to occupy my time. I've got to keep from getting bored. Shoplifting, breaking and entering, vandalism-I've done it all! The cops can't catch me; even that Spider-Man geek can't catch me. And you thought you could. Well," and she slapped Yvonne on the face, "wrong again!"

"Don't bet on it!" Yvonne shot several spike at Pietra, who just yawned as she dodged them. "Y'know Daniels, I think maybe you need some time to work on those powers of yours. Maybe after you get out, I can help you?"

"What-do you mean?" Yvonne snarled angrily."

"Your parents should have named you Patsy-because I'm playing you for one!" Pietra sped of out of the building, leaving a dazed and angry Yvonne laying in the midst of open lockers and scattered items. A wail of sirens sounded, and Yvonne saw two policemen holding flashlights enter the school….

End of Chapter 11

_Okay, sorry I took longer than usual to update; it's just an accident with my computer caused my chapter to be erased just as I was about to finish and I had to start all over!_

_As you can guess, Morgan is a male version of Megan Gwynn, AKA Pixie. While Megan tends to be happy and cheerful, being a guy with a mutation like that would be terrible. And like his mother told Mysterioss, Morgan frequently got mistaken for a girl even before this happened. Boys like that tend to grow up very defensive about their manhood and many try to prove they're tough by getting into fights and engaging in juvenile delinquency._

_Next chapter, Charlene Xavier bails Yvonne out of jail and she comes to the Institute. And before her next encounter with Pietra, she and the others meet Emmett and Martin at Bayville; what happens when it turns out Emmett is in most of the same classes as Selena?_

_And to any Germans who happend to be reading this-please understand that any mispellings and misuse of words of German are due to the fact this American is ignorant of your beautiful and glorious language, and had to use what I could gleen from the internet._


	12. Chapter 12

X-Men Evolution and all related Character belong to Marvel, Stan Lee, and Marvel Entertainment. No money is being made from their use here so please don't sue me-instead sue people who canceled Avengers-Earth's Mightiest Heroes after only two seasons!

Chapter 12

Yvonne sat in the jail cell, brooding. At least she was alone; they could have put her in here with a bunch of smelly alcoholics and hookers. As if stealing her boyfriend wasn't enough, now Pietra had to do this to her?

She heard footsteps coming up to her cell. Looking, she saw her parents, Uncle Orion, and those two older kids from the Xavier Institute.

"Welcome to the downside, gal," the girl with the shades-Selena, Yvonne thought her name was-said. "Misuse your power, you go to jail."

"But it wasn't me!" Yvonne cried. Although she had to admit, the evidence was pretty tight. _Pietra's a horny $$%#% slut but she's a _smart _horny SS%#% slut._

"Relax, Yvonne, we believe you," said the red haired guy John. "In fact, I _know_ you didn't do it." Yvonne remembered what her uncle had told her, that this guy could read minds. Normally she wouldn't like the idea of anybody, especially someone male, probing in her head, for now she just wanted out of this cell.

"Look, we're willing to cut you a deal," Selena added. "Professor Xavier will use her influence to get you out of here, and you give the Institute a shot."

"Like I got a choice?"

"Hey hey, no pressure," Selena said. Boy did that come out wrong! "Look, you always have a choice. We just want to help you make it the right one. If the Institute's not to your liking, you're free to leave."

Yvonne looked down. She didn't want to leave New York or all her friends behind. But on the other hand, it would be six months before she got out and for a teenager six months if a lifetime. "All right," she said as she reached across the bars and took Selena's hand in hers. "Deal."

* * *

"Here are your class schedules." Raymond Darkholme handed Martin and Emmett two sheets of paper. "I trust you don't need directions, do you?"

"No, no, of course not." The two boys got up from their seats and walked out of the office door.

_So, what's your first class? _Emmett asked telepathically. _I've got English Lit.  
French, _Martin replied. _One thing I got to tell you, telepathy sure does make school a lot easier. Oh, how easy it is for me to pass now! _

Emmett looked at this guy who, although he was from a rather different world Emmett was starting to like. _I don't need telepathy to pass; _he thought in what he knew would seem a smug tone. _Compared to the Snow Valley School for Boys, public school should be a breeze. _Emmett had been an honor student there; and Snow Valley had some of the highest stands in all Massachusetts. Still, if Martin used his mind reading ability Emmett wouldn't stop him.

_Oh look. Here comes two of that other mutant group Mysterioss told us about, _Martin thought at Emmett.

_You sure? How you know it's not just some other girl wearing shades and red-haired jock?_

_Trust me. I looked into Mysterioss's mind as he described them._

_How'd you do that? _Emmett had tried to read the shape-shifter's mind last night, but somehow he was kept out, and the only thoughts he read were _you will only read what I want you to read, boy. _Mind Mistress had told him there were ways of blocking telepathy and that Mysterioss had studied them all.

_Ever since I started reading minds I found out that I could easily slip past psychic barriers that would block Mother or other more powerful telepaths. I can't do it with another telepath though-or Maggie when she's wearing her helmet._

Emmett wanted to ask more but he'd just come to his classroom. "Talk to you at lunch," Emmett said innocuously as Martin nodded and walked off.

Seeing the two Martin pointed out, Emmett nodded to the. "Hello, John, Selena." Taking pleasure at seeing the shock on their faces, he thought at them telepathically, _I was told about you. _

John gritted his teeth. He didn't know why but somehow this guy rubbed him the wrong way.

Selena looked him over too. He was quite good looking-tall, slender, well built-she thought he might be blond but couldn't be sure what with her shades. Then again, Selena knew from experience that a lot of guys who were good looking could be real jerks.

Of course, the same could be true of gals too, Selena thought as she saw John sit next to Deanna Matthews.

"Alright, class," said Mrs. Krueger the English teacher. "It seems we have ourselves a new student today, a Mr. Emmett Frost. Wait a minute." She looked down at the clipboard in her hands. "Are you one of the Frosts of Boston? The owners of Frost Pharmaceuticals?"

"Unfortunately yes," Emmett said shortly.

"Very well. Well then, have a seat next to-," The gray haired woman scanned over the class room, and saw the only empty seat, "-right next to Miss Summers."

Emmett walked over to the desk next to Selena and seated himself. _Hello there._

_Oh right, that guy's a telepath,_ Selena remembered. Professor Xavier taught her how to shield her thoughts, and she immediately went on guard.

The class went on as normal, yet Selena couldn't concentrate as she kept up her mental guard. "Ms. Summers?" Mrs. Krueger asked. "Could you please recite Lady Macbeth's lines from Act 5 scene 1 page 3?"

"Ah, oh ah…" As Selena struggled to remember, her mental blocks slipped and suddenly the words appeared in her mind. "Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh Oh Oh!"

"Very good, Miss Summers," said the teacher as she marked the paper on her desk and went on to the next student.

After class was over, Selena walked out of the class. And found Emmett walking in the same direction. "Look, it's not that I'm not grateful for the save," she said, as soon as she saw John go off in a different direction, "but please don't do that again."

"Why not?" Emmett asked. Geez, but he was cute, especially when he gave that little smile.

"Because it's cheating."

"Really? I wasn't told about any rule that says you can't use telepathy to help a classmate."

"That's not the point!" Selena was getting flustered; why was she blushing. "Look, just don't go prying into my mind without permission, please?"

"Whatever you say," Emmett said as they both approached room 205.

"Wait, you have Advanced Calculus next too?" Selena said in surprise.

Emmett gave that small smile again. "Small world, isn't it?"

* * *

"So Yvonne's already met the local skateboard community huh?" Selena asked later that day at lunch.

"Yep. There she is," Kit pointed to Yvonne, who was sitting with a bunch of other guys and girls, most of whom were wearing t-shirts of a skateboarding theme.

"That's good." Professor Xavier had encouraged them all to pursue relationships with the rest of the student body at Bayville.

"Ja, but I think she's still brooding over the person who really trashed those lockers." Katrina Wagner was sitting next to Kit; although they had kept apart the week leading up to their first date since then they were almost inseparable.

"Well, like the professor said, it's best not to pry." John Grey had joined them; he'd had to stay a few extra minutes after Gym to help Coach Peterson with the upcoming boys' basketball game plays for the coming Saturday. "Yvonne will tell us when she's ready."

Across the cafeteria Martin Wyngarde cursed softly under his breath. "That telepath's here. I won't be able to find out anything more with him around; he'll be able to detect me."

"Never mind that." Emmett been quietly probing at Selena all day; as it turned out they had nearly all the same classes for the first half of the day. "Tell me what you've learned about her."

"Okay, she likes science fiction but she's not fanatical about it the way some geeks are," Martin said. "She's on the tennis team and during spring she does track and field. And she lost her parents and little sister in a plane crash when she was ten."

"Really," Emmett said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Why you want to know so much about Shades?" Lana Alvers asked; she was sitting right next to Martin. Ever since Emmett and the Wyngarde brothers arrived she and Martin had been spending a lot of time together; it seemed they had much in common-namely pool hustling, poker playing, and a complete and utter disregard for authority of any sort. Frieda was also sitting at the table, but all her attention was on the pile of food that she was making smaller. Rogue was a few tables away by himself; the Southern boy had to be the most anti-social person Emmett had ever met. And Tonya-Emmett was glad Tonya had gone outside to the garbage bins to eat. Not only would her reek make sitting at a table with her unbearable the girl actually ate _flies!_

"She and the rest of those Xavier geeks are a bunch of goody goods who think if only we mutants act nice people will accept us and want to be our friends when they find out about us," Lana added. She snorted to show what she thought about that.

Emmett nodded, he agreed completely with Lana on that regard. Mutants were the next stage of human evolution from what Magnetrix and Mind Mistress had told him. Mutants were the new Cro-Magnon's and the others were simply Neanderthals. And once they realized they were doomed for extinction the non-mutants would fight their extinction with all their might. They would experiment on mutants or use them as weapon in their wars. Unless of course, mutants took the steps needed to protect themselves.

Still there was no denying he found Selena interesting. "Let's just say I'm-intrigued-by her."

"You're kidding," John Grey said back at the other table. "He was in all your classes?"

"Yeah," said Selena. "I can't be sure either, but I think he was trying to probe my mind."

"You think?" John asked, concerned.

Selena nodded. "I tried to keep my shields up so I can't be sure. I didn't _feel_ anything, but then again we don't really have any idea how well trained he is."

John glanced at the table where Frost was sitting with that other new guy, plus Lana and Frieda. As earlier, he just had a feeling about this guy that he didn't like. He couldn't explain it but he had a feeling Emmett Frost was going to mean trouble for him and the rest of the X-Men.

* * *

Selena didn't share any more classes with Emmett until eighth period art class. John also shared the class, and during the whole time he kept glancing in Emmett's direction.

When that class ended, Emmett actually stopped in front of John. "All right, Mr. Thought Police, I wasn't trying to read anyone's mind here." Although he had been in the earlier classes. So far the most damaging secret was learning that Eddy Shivers the vice chairman of the honor society had only kept up his GPA by cheating-but Eddy's family was dirt poor; there was no way that Emmett could profit by blackmailing him. "And in case you're wondering, no I didn't kill my father." Seeing the shocked look on their faces, he added, "Yeah, I know all about that machine Cerebro your Professor uses to detect mutants and what it can do, and I do read the newspapers. But I'm not sorry the bastard's dead."

"Well I have news for you, Frost," said John. "You're not the only telepath here. So don't go prying into the minds of my friends. Understood?"

"Perfectly." Emmett walked away, completely unperturbed.

"You think he was telling the truth?" Selena asked as they walked to their lockers.

"I don't know," John said. "It's different, trying to tell if a telepath is being truthful. I felt that he was hiding something but beyond that I can't say."

Selena opened her locker and got out her jacket. "You want me to pick you up after practice?"

"No, Tyron and some other guys will drop me off." John placed hand on Selna's shoulder. "Listen, I know you're in a lot of classes with him, but promise you'll keep your distance from him."

"Excuse me," said Selena, "but I can take care of myself."

"I know you can," said John, "but I saw the way he was looking at you, and-,"

"What's the matter John?" Selena giggled. "Jealous?"

"No!" Was John blushing? "Selena, you're my best friend. And trust me, I know what guys are thinking when they look at a girl like that."

_That's all I am to you, John. A friend, _Selena thought. Angrily she brushed John's hand off of her shoulder. "Look John Grey, who appointed you my watchdog?"

"Selena, I just-,"

"No John. You listen to me. Friends respect each other's judgment right?" John nodded. "Well, you know how I feel about your girlfriend. But I don't try to interfere in your relationship with her. And I don't even plan to date this Emmett guy. And since he's in a lot of my classes, I won't be able to avoid him all the time. You got that?" Seeing John nod again, Selena turned around, and walked off to her car.

* * *

In New York that night, a lone figure clad in blue and red swung through the neighborhood of Queens. Spider-Man was on patrol, and he landed at the side of an apartment building.

"Hello, what do we have here?" The light was on after the store was closed, and the door was open. Which likely meant that-.

Spiderman swung down above the store window and looked inside. A girl with long white hair that strangely had two tufts sticking out like a pair of lightning bolts was making through the cash register.

_She's making it almost too easy_. "All right girl, stop right there."

The girl looked up. "Oh my," she said. "The Amazing Spider-Man!"

"The one and only." Spider-Man put his hands on both his hips and looked the girl square in the eye. "Look, you're young, so I promise I'll make it easy on you if just put the money back and give yourself up."

"Um-I think not," the girls smirked. "Instead how about I keep the money," she dumped it into a sack on the counter, "and then I-," she suddenly appeared right before Spider Man, who idly noted how much this girl looked like Black Cat, only without the mask-"do this!" Quick as a flash (pun intended!) she yanked off Spider-Man's mask, gave him a long and passionate French Kiss, and then ran off, faster than the eye could follow.

Spider man just stood there for several seconds, amazed at how fast the girl was. _And my Spider Sense didn't tingle once! _He thought as he suddenly realized his skin-tight pants had slid down several inches. _Did that girl just cop a feel on me?_

End of Chapter 12

_Incase you're wondering what happened to Spidy's spider sense, remember it warns him of _danger._ It's of no help if all a criminal does is kiss him and then runs away._

_While previously I mainly tried to prtray Emmett sympatheticly remember, he's still every bit as devious and self serving as Emma, and fully convinced that the ends justify the means. I also imagine him and Martin coming up with various moneymaking schemes involving their telepathy._

_Speaking of Martin, I've figured that since Kit's with Katrina, how would anyone feel about Martin/Lana?_

_Thanks to everyone who sent in reviews. And remember, they are what keeps me writing this fic! _


	13. Chapter 13

X-Men: Evolution, and all related characters belong to Marvel, WB Network, and anybody else involved in their creation. No money is being made from their use here so please don't sue me-instead sue the people who came up with the crappy Spider-Man 'One More Day' story arc!

Chapter 13

CRACK! Morgan Wyngarde's shot sent the cue ball smack into the center-and three balls landed into the two middle and left hand far corner pocket.

Martin Wyngarde patted his brother on the shoulder. "Not bad, little bro."

"Yeah." Lana tousled the boy's pink hair. Morgan scowled; did she think he was some kind of pet? Then his eyes drifted up towards her chest. Funny; he'd never hung around girls much; if anything he kind of resented them for being mistaken for one so much. But now lately, he'd been noticing things about them-especially their chests and hips.

Lana grinned; since she was thirteen she'd had the kind of figure that pushed it. Instead of getting annoyed she felt flattered. "Okay, which are you," she asked Martin, "stripes or solids?"

"Solids," Martin said. He can't fault his little brother for looking; this gal sure had one fine figure. Although-when did Morgan start looking at girls' boobs? Then he slapped himself mentally; he'd been around his brother's age when girls stopped being repulsive and started to get real cute.

Although-Martin remembered what that eerie mutant doctor working for Magnetrix had told them after examining Morgan-that he wouldn't get much taller than five feet, and that'd he'd likely always have a rather feminine appearance and voice. _Bro, I just hope you learn to deal with it._ Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a couple of dollar bills. "Morgan, why don't you get us all some sodas?"

"Sure thing." Morgan took the money and walked off towards the small bar in the pool hall.

"What, you ain't getting us any beer?" Lana pouted. _I have a fake ID, _she said mentally at him.

Martin shrugged. "Dives like this have lousy beer; besides, Morgan can't drink."

"So he's underage? I doubt that'll be a problem; I've seen kids much younger than him drinking here."

""He. Can't." Seeing Lana look puzzled, Martin explained, "He's tried, but alcohol just make him sick. Beer, whisky, vodka, any kind of booze. A little more than a spoonful and he starts to throw up. He used to keep trying, until I finally told him he should stop; that I didn't think it made him a sissy or anything. So around him I don't drink."

Lana glanced back at the pink haired boy, who actually looked much younger than the thirteen she knew he was. "But why'd you bring him along? Not that I don't like the little guy but this ain't exactly a kiddie joint."

"I promised the old lady I'd look after him." Martin saw his brother buy the pop, and walk back to them. He'd never tell Morgan but even to him his little brother could easily pass for a flat-chested girl. The new style he'd adopted didn't seem to help much: heavy black eyeliner done in a rather scary style and black polish on his fingernails. With the black leather jacket, Aerosmith t-shirt, torn black jeans and Doc Martins Morgan did look tough-but still effeminate.

Morgan was scowling too, and Martin knew why-a quick telepathic scan told him the bartender had called his brother 'little miss.' Considering how defensive Morgan was about his masculinity, Martin thought it a wonder the bartender didn't get punched in the eye.

The game ended with Lana winning by a wide margin. Instead getting upset, Martin simply whistled; the girl was one good pool player.

"Say there," a deep voice with a Brooklyn accent said, "hows about we play youse kids?" Martin and Lana looked and saw to rather grubby looking guys in their mid-twenties standing over them. A quick telepathic scan told Martin they thought they found some kids they could easily beat and win money off of.

_You want to hustle 'em? _Lana thought at Martin with a glint in her eye. Martin gave a small nod.

They started out easily enough, losing on purpose, and handing over some dollar boys. Soon Martin was playing the one ready to quit-"All right Lana, we've lost enough now, let's pay up and go home," with Lana playing the eager girl "No Marty, let's play one more game."

Soon though, they began winning. Barely, at first, just enough to make the stranger think they might get their money back with another game-until they had won three hundred and fifty dollars from the New Yorkers.

"Look kids, you cleaned us out," the one who challenged them said. "You're two damn good pool players."

"Yeah," said his partner as he leered at Lana; instead of getting angry Lana preened. "Maybe you've got more tricks than just with a pool stick."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Lana fluttered her eyes; while she was a tomboy she could be flirtatious too.

The two New Yorkers walked out the pool hall; Martin and Lana spent the next couple minutes splitting up their winnings. Martin counted out a handful of twenties and handed them to his brother. "Just a little something until Ma sends us "It's getting late," Martin said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Ol' Blueface is gonna get mad at us if we're out for too long." The three teenagers walked out the pool hall.

They'd gone a few feet when they heard a familiar voice say, "All right kiddies step into the alley. Now. I've got a gun."

Not wanting to take any chances, all three did so. The two men from New York were standing right before them; the one who'd approached them holding a sawed off shotgun while his partner was putting on brass knuckles. The shotgun-toting New Yorker went on, "You're going to give us the money back. With interest."

"Oh will we?" said Lana snarkely.

"Oh yes. Especially you girl." The man with the brass knuckles walked forward. "Oh, there's plenty of pimps who'll pay well for the likes of you." He turned his eyes at Morgan. "Oh, and I know an old pervert who'd really like a pink haired sissyboy fairy like you."

"Don't call me a sissy!" cried Morgan, always defensive about his manhood.

The guy holding the shotgun laughed. "He even sounds like a girl! That freak will really like him now!"

"Back off of my brother!" Martin held up his hands, and suddenly the shotgun pointed at him turned into a hissing rattlesnake.

"What-what's happening?" the man cried as he threw the snake to the ground. Which immediately became a shotgun again. His partner just stopped, and the brass knuckles on his hands became a pair of enormous boa constrictors that wrapped around him, choking the life out of his body-or so he thought.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Martin looked at his brother. "Morgan, what say you finish this?"

"Gladly, big brother." Morgan slid of his jacket, revealing his wings.

The two would be kidnappers gasped at the sight of butterfly wings on the thirteen year old boy. "You-youse is all some kind of freaks!"

"That's right," Martin said. "We're freaks-freaks who're gonna take you normals' place!"

Morgan flapped his wings and flew over the man who in the stranglehold of the boas-which were just his brother's illusions; the brass knuckles were still on his hands. "This is for calling me a sissyboy, punk." Morgan blew that strange pink-'pixie dust' into his face-and now the stranger was screaming as the snakes disappeared and he fell to the ground, still crying at whatever hallucination Morgan had given him.

His partner turned and ran, only to be knocked down by a tremor from Lana. As he fell he saw the boy with pink-black hair and butterfly wings hovering over him. "Wha-what kind of freaks are youse kids?"

Morgan Wyngarde cackled. "You heard of the tooth fairy? Well, I'm the _nightmare _fairy," he laughed as he blew his pixie dust into the man's face.

* * *

The very next day, Martin, Lana, Emmett, Frieda, Rogue, and Tonya were waiting outside the principal's office; Martin and Lana were of course sitting next to each other holding hands; Rogue just turned away. _Get a room, both of you_, the Goth boy thought darkly.

Inside, Raymond Darkholme was sitting at his desk. "I'm so pleased that you could join us today, Mistress. Emmett and Martin already know you, but I thought the other finally should-."

"I am not here for your 'student body' meeting, Mysterioss." The red-clad woman placed a small holographic disc on the desktop and activated it. "Here," said Magnetrix "is young Pietra Maximoff."

Mysterioss looked at the image; he was one of the few who'd seen Magnetrix without her helmet. He could certainly see the resemblance to the young girl the disc projected. "So this is your daughter the speedster?"

"Yes. Although she ran away from me after a-disagreement." Mysterioss couldn't be sure but he thought for a moment Magnetrix sounded wistful. "although I have been keeping my eye on her all this time."

"I see. Perhaps I shall have to arrange for a mother daughter reunion."

"That will not be easy. I know my daughter better than she knows herself. Pietra thinks she needs no-one." Magnetrix placed another disc on top of the desk. "Yet she has long held a grudge rivalry with this girl-Yvonne Daniels."

"The new student Xavier enrolled at this school last week." Mysterioss smiled in satisfaction. "And I know just how to bring them together."

* * *

CRASH! Ms. Logan looked over where Yvonne had landed after falling off the ramp in the Danger-room. "Not too shabby, porcupine," the short woman said, "you managed to hit every one of the balls Jean sent your way with those spike of yours. But now you got to do it again. And this time, pay attention to everything around you, or Shades will blindside you again."

Yvonne grunted and picked up her skateboard to make her way up the ramp when Kit phased his way into the control tower. "Hey Yvonne," the short boy said, "you've got a game tonight. Your coach wants you suited up and ready within an hour."

"That's funny, there wasn't one on the schedule," Yvonne mused.

"Yeah, Principal Darkholme put it together at the last minute," Kit replied. "You're playing against PS-104."

Katrina teleported right next to Yvonne. _"Fruendin!" _she said as she slapped Yvonne on the back. "You'll be playing against your old school!"

"Yeah," said Yvonne, and a look of dark anticipation came over her face. So her old team was coming here. Which meant Pietra would be coming with them.

* * *

The bus for PS-104 stopped in the Bayville high parking lot; Yvonne stood back as she saw a bunch of her old teammates step off. When she saw a tall girl with long white hair step down, the African American girl stepped forward. "Yo! Maximoff!"

"Well well," Pietra sneered at the sight of Yvonne. "Out of jail already Daniels. Or is this miserable burg part of your punishment?"

"We've got a score to settle," Yvonne snarled.

"Ooh sounds like a challenge." Pietra just looked at her finely manicured hands and seemed totally oblivious-until Yvonne tried to grab her by the arm. "Too slow," Pietra said as she swiftly ran behind Yvonne, and shoved her.

Selena and John came outside the school; as soon as they saw the two girls Selena called out, "What's going on?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Yvonne said through clenched teeth, glaring at Pietra.

"Is this the girl who was really stealing from the lockers?" asked John.

"Well, said Pietra, "Yeah, yeah, I trashed those lockers. I've also done vandalism and shoplifting; I've broken into convenience stores. I even took Spider-Man's mask!"

"I think you better come with us," Selena said as she grabbed Pietra by the arm.

"Uhm, I think not." Pietra easily slipped out of Selena's grasp and tripped her into the ground. Appearing right in front of John she fluttered her eyelashes and said, "How about you and I have a quick one before the game?"

"You're not my type." John raised his hands to hold Pietra with his telekinesis, but Pietra quickly grabbed him by the wrist and spun him around like a top. Stepping aside dressed in her Quicksilver outfit (What? She's fast) Pietra shouted, "Catch me if you can!" and sped away.

"Man, that girl's fast!" shouted Selena, amazed at the speed the girl was running at. She ran over to help John, who was still spinning around.

Yvonne grabbed her skateboard and her uniform which she had stashed away. "You're going down, Pietra!" she shouted as she took off after the speedster.

Selena managed to stop John from spinning around. "What, what just happened?" the red haired young man asked dizzily.

"That girl's taken off into the city; Yvonne's trying to catch her."

"What?" John glanced off to where the two girls had gone. "Yvonne can't catch her all alone."

"Don't worry," said Selena. "When you're with the X-Men you're never alone."

Pietra was having the time of her life; here she was going at only an eighth of her speed and still Yvonne couldn't keep up with her. Stopping she shouted, "Face it Daniels, you're out of your league!"

"Not this time Pietra!" Yvonne unleashed several pikes at the silver-haired girl. "This time I win one!"

Pietra deftly dodged the pikes then ran in front of the skateboard, tripping Yvonne and sending her flying. Running over to where she landed, Pietra laughed haughtily. "C'mon, Daniels, you call this a challenge? You can't touch me no matter what I do!" Yvonne shot several more spikes, all of them missed. Pietra only laughed again. "Now, spike-girl," she said, "Say goodbye to Bayville!"

She sped off, going fasters and faster, creating powerful winds and sonic booms, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake.

Yvonne angrily got to her feet and threw down her helmet. "She's too fast!" she cried to Selena and John as they came running dressed in their X-men uniforms. "I thought you said all that training would help!"

"Training's only part of it, Spyke," Selena said. "Teamwork's another." She glanced at her other teammate. "John?"

"Got it!" John lifted up his hands and all of a sudden Pietra was off the ground. "Wha-what-what's happening?"

"You can't run if there's no ground underneath!" John shouted. "You might as well give up!"

"Oh yeah?" In mid-air Pietra spun herself around at top speed. "It's twister time!"

John grunted; this was like trying to hold back a hurricane! "I can't-hold her-for long," he shouted. "Whatever you're going to do, do it now!"

"Got it!" Selena focused her optic blast so it hit Pietra dead in the center of her chest. "C'mon Spyke, pin her now!"

Yvonne shot several spikes, aimed with precision at the sides of Pietra's torso, legs, and arms. Finding herself pinned to the wall, Pietra squirmed and struggled, to no avail. "I can't get loose, I can't get loose!"

Yvonne gave her best imitation of Pietra's cocky smirk as she walked up to the trapped speedster. "Not so fast now, are you, Quicksilver?"

"So?" Pietra still was able to give of her air of arrogant superiority. "What good's it going to do you? You still can't prove I had anything to do with getting you into trouble."

"Oooh, sounds like a challenge." Yvonne produced a small tape recorder, and pressed a button. _"Yeah, yeah, I trashed those lockers," _said Pietra's arrogant voice. "_I've also done vandalism and shoplifting; I've broken into convenience stores. I even took Spider-Man's mask!" _Pietra could only grind her teeth in frustration as Yvonne set the tape recorder down on the sidewalk, and the sound of police sirens blared. "Looks like you'll have some explaining to do to the cops," she said. "In the meantime-I've got a basketball game to catch."

* * *

"Let me out of here!" Pietra shouted as she shook the bars of her cell. Her speed was doing her no good; the bars and walls were fitted too tight for her to vibrate them apart. "Let me out of here! I want out of here!"

A guard walked in front of the cell. "Pietra Maximoff," he said, "you have a visitor." Pietra stopped and stood there for a second; who'd come to visit her?

The guard left, and Pietra saw a woman half a head taller but otherwise quite similar to herself dressed in a red blazer and business suit step in front of the cell; she was accompanied by a brown-haired boy about for years old. "You!" Pietra cried.

"Is that how you greet your dear old mother after all this time, Pietra?" Magnetrix sighed. "And I was so looking forward to our reunion."

Pietra turned her attention to the little boy standing next to her mother. "And just who's this little dweeb?"

"This 'little dweeb," said Magnetrix "is Lorne. Your brother."

Pietra stared at Lorne, then at her mother. "You had him just after you put Warrick in that nuthouse?" And Pietra herself had run away

"Who's Warrick?" Lorne asked, speaking for the first time.

"I will tell you some other time," Magnetrix said. She looked back at her daughter. "You still hold that against me?" Pietra simply snorted. "Look Pietra, Warrick is simply too unstable and with the power he possesses he would have been uncontrollable. But that's not why I'm here. Pietra, I need you."

No Pietra was shocked. "You-need me?"

Magnetrix nodded. "Your power has grown much since I last saw you, and I have need of you. I can pay your bail and pull the strings needed to have you enrolled at a school where one of my lieutenants is the principal. However," she added, "you must obey me in every respect, and report to me on schedule. But if you rather I left you here-."

"NO!" Pietra reached out and grabbed her mother by the collar of her blazer. "I do whatever you want, just GET ME OUT OF HERE," Pietra hung her head and hissed out the word she refused to say ever since her mother had her twin brother sequestered at an insane asylum, "_Mom."_

* * *

Martin walked into Emmett's room, Lana's hand in his while Morgan followed hovering in mid-air. "You mean you're wasting a beautiful Saturday afternoon doing _homework?"_

"Unlike some people I could name," Emmett said as he moved back his chair and turned to face his friends, "I actually care about my grades."

"Well, duh," said Lana. "But how come you're a diamond right now?"

"Because," Emmett said, reverting to flesh, "being in diamond form keeps the voices out of my head, making it far easier for me to concentrate. Now pray, why have you three seen fit to interrupt my studies?"

"Here" Martin pulled out several bills and handed them to Emmett. "Your cut from betting at the girls' basketball game the other night." At that game, Emmett and Martin had found with their telepathy several visitors from SB-104 who were willing to bet on money-and when their teams lead player failed to show up, the Bayville Lady Hawks had trounced them easily.

Emmett counted up the bills: 250 dollars. Even if Martin had short changed him it was still a good amount. He still had most of the money he'd made from blackmail in New York and had started a brand-new savings account; If by any chance it would be in his best interests to depart from this place-hopefully with Crystal too so he could care for her-Emmett knew he'd need money. "I don't think you came here just to give me my share of our winnings."

"No, it that," Martin paused, as if unsure what to say. "Look, my old lady taught you how to screw with other people's minds some, didn't she?"

"Yes," Emmett said, "but I can't do anything more than disorient people a little or give them headaches."

"Well that's all we need," Martin replied. "You know our school's visiting against Midtown tonight. Well, we go to the game, we find some locals who want to bet, and when the game starts, you give the Mustang's players psychic blasts to foul them, and we clean up!"

Emmett rubbed his chin thoughtfully; that did indeed sound most profitable. "Very well," he said and he shook Martin's hand. "I'm in."

Just then Tonya leaped into Emmett's doorway. Emmett did his best to ignore reek emanating from the girl; he was _very_ glad the froglike girl's room was on the opposite side of the house.

"Hey guys," Tonya said, "there's a new girl coming here; the boss man wants us all down to meet her."

The four followed Tonya out the hall and down the stairs; as they made their way Emmett asked Martin telepathically, _Why's your brother flying right now?_

_He's been doing that a lot lately,_ Martin replied. _He says walking just gets harder and harder for him._

They'd reached the floor and saw Mysterioss standing at the doorway with the new girl. Emmett had to do a double take; he'd only seen Magnetrix a couple of times without her helmet, but this girl was almost a dead ringer for her. Oh, not as tall and a lot more slender but the resemblance was unmistakable.

"All right everyone," said Mysterioss, "here's our newest member, Pietra Maximoff."

"I don't see what's so special about this girl," snorted Tonya. "What can she do?"

In the blink of an eye, Pietra sped right behind Tonya. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she smiled then held her nose. "Uh, newsflash for you Stinky, but perfume alone ain't going to cover up that stench."

"It's a condition, yo," Tonya muttered irritably.

"Well it's a condition we'll have to do something about, if I'm gonna be seen in public with you." She turned her attention at Frieda. "Same goes for you, big girl."

"I-can't-help-it." Frieda clenched her teeth as her hands curled into fists.

"Frieda's mutation makes her like this," Mysterioss explained. "She could go for two weeks without food and not lose a pound."

"Oh well, bummer But at least I can help you make the best of it." She then saw Lana holding hands with Martin. "Boy, not everyone can do the street-smart tomboy look, but you pull it nicely," Pietra grinned., then turned her gaze to Emmett. Not bad, she thought, not bad. Kind of preppy looking the way he dressed in white but it suited him.

Emmett likewise was eyeing Pietra. There was no denying with her thick mane of silvery-white hair, sparkling blue eyes and sharp, streamlined features this girl was gorgeous. A little flat chested but the rest of her body more than more than made up for it. Especially her legs.

Pietra glanced up and saw Morgan hovering in mid-air. "So we've got fairy girls here too?"

"I'm a guy!" Morgan shouted as he lowered down in front of Pietra's face. Martin facepalmed; his brother's voice sounded even more girlish when he was angry.

"Oh really?" Pietra said derisevly. "Prove it."

Morgan blinked. "Prove it?" he asked puzzled.

"Like this." Pietra grabbed Morgan by the arm and suddenly the fairy-like boy was struggling to breath as she sped them up the stairs and into one of the rooms-as it happened to be, Morgan's own room.

Morgan suddenly found himself standing right in front of Pietra, naked as the day he was born-except when he was born he didn't have butterfly wings or pink hair.

"Well well," Pietra said as she looked Morgan over. "Seems you really are a guy after all. My apologies." She smiled as she saw the obvious proof of Morgan's gender. "And you're a lot bigger _there _than I'd expect."

Morgan only blushed; he'd never really had a girl look at him like this before. "Why don't you take your own clothes off?" he demanded, finding the nerve to speak.

"Fair enough." Within three eye blinks, Pietra removed all her clothes. "Like what you see.

Morgan's eyes went wide; beyond looking at skin magazines and sneaking into porno films he'd never seen a naked woman before. Now he was getting a feeling similar to those times only far stronger, and more intense.

Pietra sat down on Morgan's bed and pulled him to her. "Now, really show me you're a guy." Morgan only looked confused then Pietra planted a wet, passionate kiss on his mouth. "I just got out of prison, and I'm needy. So fuck me, fairy boy. Prove to me that you're a man." Pietra giggled as Morgan responded, clumsily but eagerly. Sometimes there was just no better thrill than to take a virgin boy and make a man out of him.

Morgan groaned; he'd always wondered what this would be like. He fantasized to be sure but to actually do it felt strange.

But oh, it also felt _SSSSSOOOO _good.

End of chapter 13

_Okay, I felt I should give Morgan a chance to _really_ prove his manhood .And who better with than a super-speedy slut like Pietra? But no, this isn't going to be some sort of pairing up; Pietra's just too man hungry to settle for just one._

_Next chapter John's playing in the basketball game at Midtown and notices the Bayville Hawks seem to be winning a little too easily-yet he can't prove anything. Plus Selena goes to the local tennis court to practice her game and finds out that Emmett plays tennis too. And another suprise appearance by our favorite web-slinger!_

_BTW, in case you're wondering why Pietra didn't expose Pider-Man's secret identity-she doesn't know who Peter Parker is!_


	14. Chapter 14

X-Men: Evolution and all related characters are the property of Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anon else involved in their production. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-instead sue my employers who won't give me a raise!

Chapter 14

"I can't believe John's actually playing here of all places," Kit Pryde said as Selena Summers parked her car in the Midtown High parking lot , an unusual look of enthusiasm on his face.

"You?" Getting excited about a basketball game?" Yvonne Daniels was amazed; she never met a guy less interested in sports than Kit. Oh he went to her and John's games, but more to show support for his friends than for the game's sake.

"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Kit. "This school is where the fourth greatest number of Spider-Man sightings has been seen. We might actually see him tonight!"

Selena sighed; Kit was a massive Spider-Man fan. She'd sometimes come into his room and saw him at his computer online at one of the countless websites about the mysterious masked hero, and there were clippings of newspaper articles pinned to his drawing board. "How many times do I have to tell you, Spider-Man's only an urban legend?"

"I don't know about that, Selena," said Yvonne. "Pietra did say she took Spider-Man's mask and they did find one in the loft she was staying at." They'd even given the mask to Yvonne; since she wasn't especially big on Spider-Man she let Kit have it-although now she'd become a little more curious about the alleged vigilante.

"Pietra must have been bragging; she probably took that mask from some costume store," Selena and the others got out of her car. "Besides, if Spider-Man were real, he'd be a mutant like us; how come the Professor's never spotted him with Cerebro?"

"Maybe he's not a mutant," put in Katrina. "Maybe he's some millionaire scientist and he uses clever gadgets to climb valls and make webs."

"Or maybe he's an alien whose planet was destroyed," said Kit, going into full geek mode.

"Or perhaps he was zapped by cosmic rays," added Yvonne.

"Or maybe he was bitten by a radioactive spider." Selena rolled her eyes in frustration. They'd come here to show support for John, not to discuss some make-believe super-hero.

* * *

Inside the school, Peter Parker was taking pictures of the Bayville Hawks as they came inside. While Peter mainly took pictures of his web-slinging alter-ego for the Daily Bugle Lowell Jeffries the Bugle's sports reporter was covering this game and asked Peter to take some photos.

"Hey Grey!" a big blond guy with wide shoulders called out. "Tonight, I'm getting payback for when you ruined my touchdown last month!"

"In your dreams Thompson!" the red-haired guy in a Bayville Hawks basketball uniform shouted back. John Grey had had a friendly rivalry with Eugene Thompson ever since they first played against each other their freshman year. "I'll bet they call you 'Flash' because that's all you are, without any substance."

"Oh really?" Flash's smirk grew wider. "Tell you what. You Hawks when tonight and," he pointed to a slender boy who looked like a somewhat taller version of Kit holding a camera, "and you get to flush Puny Parker's head down the toilet!"

John glowered; one thing he never liked about Flash was that he was something of a bully. Not the worst kind; as far as he knew Flash didn't take other people's money or even really go beyond stuffing people into lockers or giving swirlys. But he just didn't really seem to get how he got his pleasure hurt people. "Tell you what," he said. "We win; I flush _your_ head down the toilet."

"You're on!" Flash answered. "And my team wins you get your head flushed." He stuck out his hand. "Deal?"

"Deal?" John took Flash's hand in his and shook while he glanced at the boy he just saved from Flash's childish antics. The nodded back, with an understandable look of relief on his face.

As the visiting team piled into the locker room, Flash slapped Peter on the back. "Lucky you, Puny Parker. Johnny Grey's going to get swirled tonight instead of you!" The bond athlete went into the locker room to join his teammates.

Peter gave a small sigh of relief. True, he could easily have taken Flash apart and put him in his place, but he had a secret identity to maintain. The more people just thought he was Puny Parker, the less likely they'd think he was Spider-Man. Still, he didn't getting his head flushed underneath.

And now he'd actually hoped his own school lost. Just seeing Flash get swirled would be _ssssooo _worth it.

* * *

"OW!" Tonya Tolansky whined as Pietra went over her back with a sea cucumber sponge. "Do you have to scrub so hard?"

"Trust me toad-girl, I'm doing you a favor." Pietra wrinkled up her nose; even here in the shower, Tonya _stank. _An unfortunate side effect of her mutation was that her body secreted foul-smelling oils. Because hot water and soap severely irritated the froglike girl's skin she rarely bathed, allowing the oils to form a crust on her back and making the reek worse. "I'm doing _both_ of us a favor."

They'd been in the shower for fifteen minutes; the water was tepid due to Tonya's sensitivity to temperature. Had it been with a cute guy Pietra would have considered this fun; as it was it was work. Smelly, dirty unpleasant work.

Still, it needed to be done.

After Pietra was certain she got the last of the crusty slime from Tonya's back and the entire residue had gone down the drain, she picked up a plain, unmarked bottle. "This is industrial strength shampoo," she said as she poured a portion into her hand. "The kind they use to clean aquariums."

"_SOAP!" _Tonya shivered.

"Trust me girl, you need it." She massaged the soapy liquid into Tonya's dirty hair worked it was in, digging her fingers down to the roots.

"_It's burning my eyes!" _Tonya whaled_. "And my scalp!"_

"That's how you know it's working," snickered Pietra. A little more compassionately she added, "This is really only a once a month thing; most of the time simply rinsing and combing should do the trick." She rubbed a little more shampoo underneath Tonya's armpits and rinsed them.

After turning off the water, Pietra and Tonya stepped out of the shower. Pietra opened the window to air out the room then patted Tonya's torso and armpits down with talcum powder. "Okay, that takes care of your stink-a little." There was still a trace of Tonya's familiar stench but it was so faint you had to be trying to smell it to notice. After she wrapped Tonya and her now clean hair up in towels she handed her a blow dryer. "Go to your room, dry your hair and I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Stepping back into the shower, Pietra turned the water to hot and showered herself; she _really _wanted to get rid of all traces of Tonya's odor from her.

Less than a minute later-Pietra had been going at super speed even while she cleaned Tonya; that cleaning her took fifteen minutes should really tell you how bad Tonya's hygiene was-Pietra appeared in Tonya's room carrying her makeup case. "Okay, now, let's see what we can do with you here," she said as she rapidly applied foundation, concealer, eye shadow, mascara, and lipstick. In a blur Pietra whirled around Tonya and the next thing she knew she was dressed in a white halter top and yellow miniskirt, with her newly-washed hair pulled to the right side of her head and held by a scrunchy. "Okay, now have a look at the new and _vastly_ improved Tonya Tolansky."

Tonya looked at the dirty mirror-five months of living on the streets, eating flies and spider, birds and even mice until Mysterioss found her had made her a slob. But now, when she looked, the foundation and makeup covered her sickly yellow complexion perfectly and with her hair clean and well brushed she could almost see what she'd been before. The girl whose parents entered her in beauty pageants and had fussed over her and told everyone she was their pride and joy-until she mutated into something they couldn't stand the sight or smell of.

Pietra looked her over with a critical eye. "We'll have to get you some better earrings," she said, "and don't slouch so much. It spoils the effect."

"Sorry," Tonya said and straightened.

"Good." Now Pietra smiled, with strange warmth that Tonya hadn't seen on the arrogant speedster before. "Look, if I've got to hang out with you and Frieda, I've got to make you both-presentable at least." Now she frowned as she kept examining her handiwork. "We can't do anything about the green tongue but the rest-maybe we can get some contacts for those yellow eyes. But there's one thing you need to know honey-if you don't want to be a social outcast you've got to make the most of what you've got-and now that we've taken care of the stinky slime you ooze, what you got ain't half bad."

* * *

It was half time, and John Grey took advantage to visit the home locker to talk to Thompson. The Hawks were getting a big lead on the Mustangs; the way things looked the game was as good as won. "Hope you've been getting ready to go under, Flash," he grinned, "under the John, that is! Don't worry; we won't whiz in it before we flush you."

"Hardy har har," Flash muttered.

"Why are you so glum?" _It can't be he's afraid of getting his head flushed_; Flash Thompson was practically immune to embarrassment_,_ which was probably why he never seemed to understand how his bullying hurt others. "Because I took the ball from you about five times so far?"

"No that's not it-it's just-," Flash paused, unsure of what to say. "Every time you did, it's just-I've blacked out or had a sudden migraine."

"Yeah," said one of Flash's teammates nicknamed Kong-John didn't know his real name. "That Tyron guy of yours had the ball and I was about to grab and then-I black out for a second and he scored."

"Yeah, me too," said another Mustang. "The same thing happened to me!" put in another. "And me!" added a third.

John couldn't believe what he was hearing. This sounded a lot like when Charlene Xavier started to train him in using his telepathy for psionic assaults; Selena, Mr. Munro and Ms. Logan all described just what these guys told him. _Is there a telepath here?_ John wondered. _And why would he or she be attacking the Mustangs? What purpose to it?_

* * *

"You upset they don't serve caviar or-what do they call it?-_phooey grass?"_ Lana Alvers smirked as she, Martin, Emmett and Morgan went to the concession stand.

"It's called _foie gras," _muttered Emmett; that girl never seemed to tire of teasing him about his wealthy background. "And contrary to what you might think, the concession stands at my old school didn't serve them; just stuff like what you see here." He got himself a hot dog and a soda, and turned to see Selena walking up with three younger teenagers.

"Hello Selena," he said, giving his small smile. "You here for the game?"

"Um, ah, yes." Selena stammered as she tried to ready her mind in case Emmett or that other telepath-Martin was it. "We're rooting for John."

"You must be Kit Pride," Emmett said to the only boy, who was holding hands with a slightly taller black haired girl. He looked at her. "_Hallo, Fraulein_ _Wagner," _he said in perfect German-Bavarian accented German no less.

Katrina blinked in surprise. _"Sie sprechen Deutsch, Herr Frost?"_ she asked, amazed. One of her pet peeves was that while Bayville taught Spanish and French it did not teach her native language and hardly anybody here other than Ms. Logan and the Professor seemed to speak it.

"_Ich sprechen viele Sprachen, Fraulien."_ Unlike public schools the Snow Valley School for boys had offered courses in many languages, and Emmett had taken and excelled in them all.

As Emmett's companions got their snacks, Emmett thought to Martin, _All right, what's Selena thinking?_

Martin looked at Emmett. _She's thinking if you're trying to impress her with your language skills it's not going to work._

Emmett nodded; he'd expected that. Looking off in the direction of the gym he said, "Looks like halftimes almost over. C'mon guys, let's go enjoy the rest of the game." Looking back at Selena he added, "See you at school Monday."

"So that's the guy who you think's been stalking you?" Yvonne said.

"Well," Selena mused, "I'm not sure if he's _stalking_ me. I mean, I don't even really know if he has been probing into my mind or not; I just keep my guard up because, well, better safe than sorry."

"Whatever," muttered Yvonne. "I'm just glad I don' have any classes with mind-readers I don't know I can trust."

* * *

For the rest of the game, John was wary. By long habit he ignored his telepathy when he was caught up in the heat of the game, yet he still noticed Flash and the other Mustangs playing sloppier than usual. Something was not right.

When he went to the seats and simply watched, he noticed the Mustangs' playing improved. Not enough to catch up with the big lead the Hawks had built but far better than when John was playing. Something was not right.

Looking out into the bleachers, John spotted Emmett Frost and Martin Wyngarde in the upper left hand bleachers. John scowled; he knew from Cerebro's readout that Martin was strictly a one way telepath who could only _read_ minds yet Emmett on the other hand…and he only seemed to be using it when John was on the court and too focused on the game to detect him. _Clever, _John thought bitterly.

The game ended, with the Hawks winning 86 to 19. The highest ratio ever that John could remember against Midtown.

And never had he felt so sick to his stomach in winning a basketball game.

As the Hawks changed in the locker room, Flash Thompson came in with several of his teammates. "All right Grey, you win the bet so that means," he ambled over to the toilet and lifted up the seat, "I get swirled!"

One thing you had to hand to Flash, he could be a very good loser.

John would have gladly forgone the bet, but his teammates were cheering him on, going "FLUSH! FLUSH! FLUSH!" Putting on his best face, John walked over to Flash, shoved him head first into the toilet bowel, and pulled down the flush lever.

Flash stayed under the whole time the water was swirling around him. Several flashes from a camera blinked, and when Flash emerged all wet and spitting, he glared at the boy behind the camera. "Puny Parker!"

Peter Parker only grinned. "Looks like they'll be calling you _Flush _Thompson after the yearbook prints these!" he said as he turned to walk out the door.

Flash balled up his hands into fists; had it been one of his teammates he would have just laughed but no way would he let Puny Parker make a fool out of him!

John simply grabbed Thompson by the shoulder. "Just leave him be," he said. Flash glowered then nodded. He'd get that geek some other time.

* * *

After telling the coach he was going home with his friends, John walked out to the parking lot. Nearly all the other visitors had gone, leaving only a beat up looking jeep with a canvas cover.

Inside, Emmett and Martin were counting up their winnings; they'd immediately found their marks right after the game and got them to pay up. "Oh ho!" cried Martin. "$500 apiece for each of us!"

"What'd I tell you?" Emmett said. "Instead of betting big with a few, we make little bets with many, and the small amounts add up." Remembering his experience with blackmail Emmett decided they should only have them bet like twenty to thirty dollars each, making it less likely for them to try and run out. He also hadn't used his telepathy when John Grey was sitting on the bench; the red-haired telepath was only too likely to spot him. While he was playing Emmett figured Grey to be too caught up in the rush of the game to notice. And he'd been right.

"Here you go, little bro." Martin handed Morgan a handful of bills.

"Don't I get any?" Lana pouted. "This is my jeep, and I did drive you guys here. That little guy didn't do anything."

"Hey, I always share with my brother," said Martin then added, "although how about we drop him and Emmett off at the boarding house then head for this rock club I've found on Second Street?"

"I'll just go home, thank you," said Emmett. What Martin and the rest of his housemates did was their business but Emmett wanted to get back to his homework assignment, and get it finished before Sunday.

All of a sudden, Emmett found himself sized by a massive headache like what he had when his powers emerged only a hundred times worse. Looking at Martin he could see the other telepath was also afflicted.

Frantically Lana tried to shove the key into the ignition but the keychain pulled from her hand and floated in mid-air. The doors to the jeep opened, and the four teenagers saw a very angry John Grey glaring at them. The red-haired jock waved his right hand, and as if alive the seatbelts around Morgan and Lana wrapped themselves around the two and clasped into place.

"What-what're you doing?" Emmett gasped; the pain in his head felt like a blacksmith pounding with a ten pound hammer. Looking at Martin he could tell the other telepath had it even worse; his eyes looked glazed over and there was a little blood dribbling out of his nose.

"Giving you guys a taste of what you were giving the Mustang players-only about twenty fold," John said his voice eerily calm. "I know what you were doing-you fixing the game so you could clean up betting, weren't you?"

"You-you want a cut of the take?" Martin reached for his stack of bills. "You can have-." The money at his side and Emmett's lifted up and out of the jeep as if blown away by the wind.

"I don't want your dirty money." John looked back at the two other telepaths. His expression hardened, and the pain inside their heads got even more intense. "Listen, I'm only going to say this to you guys once-_stop fixing games_. I never _once_ used my powers to win. I play fair and square so-,"

With a painful effort of will Emmett managed to switch to diamond form. "That won't work with me now!" He shouted as he lunged at John.

And was slammed back into his seat. "But this will." John held up his other hand, holding Emmett down with telekinesis. He could sense the power both of them had. Especially Emmett, yet the other boy had only recently come into his powers and had little experience with them. John had been training with Charlene Xavier since junior high. "I could so easily make you $^$#% go and $#!+ yourselves. But I'll-just-." Before John could finish, he was surrounded by a cocoon of sticky white silk.

Emmett wasted no time. "C'mon, let's get out of here"," he cried to Lana as soon as he was free of John's TK.

"But what-."

"We lost it! Now let's get out of here!" Emmett screamed as he shut the door. "Let John and that Spider-Man guy duke it out!" Lana didn't argue but simply started her jeep and drove out of the Midtown High parking lot.

John looked at the red and blue clad figure emerging from the shadows. "Spider-Man?" he said. "You-you're real?"

"Yes I am." While watching the game earlier, Peter Parker had noticed the way Flash Thompson and the others were fumbling. Now Peter didn't like Flash-he _really_ disliked the jerk-yet he had a healthy respect for the guy's athletic abilities. For him and the others to fumble like that-and they only seemed to when this red haired guy was on the court. And now this guy was yelling at some people and with a wave of his hand, was causing the people inside to scream and a whole great pile of money flying out into the night sky. Something had to be screwed up here, and he'd get some answers.

John Grey writhed on the ground; he tried to get the web like substance off of him with his TK but it was sticky! Looking up, he saw a shadowy figure coming toward him. With his hands bound up like this he couldn't use his TK, but he still had his telepathy.

"All right," Spider-Man said. "You flushed Flash Thompson, and for that you have my undying gratitude. But I need to know just what-AAAHHH!" Spider-Man jerked as his head was seized by the worst headache he's ever had since that one time he'd got drunk. "What're you doing?"

"I could ask you the same thing." John's eyes weren't covered; in the dim light he could make out-, "Spider-Man? The one whose pictures show up in the Daily Bugle?"

"The one and only." Now Spider-Man felt the pain ease up a little. "Okay now, how about we talk things over and maybe I'll-."

Now his Spider-Sense went off, and without even looking Spider-Man leaped out of the way as a crimson red beam flashed where he had been only a second ago. "What the-?" he wondered as he saw three girls and one guy walk out into the parking lot from a convertible that had just parked.

Selena Summers placed her glasses back down; she wished she'd brought her visor. "John!" she cried as she ran over to him. "John, what's happened? Why are you all covered in this sticky gunk?"

"Why don't you ask the masked guy there?" All four looked at Spider-Man clinging to the school building.

Kit's eyes went wide. _"Spider-Man? _Is that really you?" Selena just stood there glad her shades hid her gawking eyes. Spider-Man really existed? She couldn't believe it yet there he was in the dim night, clinging to the side of the school building. "Omigod, I can't believe I'm meeting Spider-Man!"

"What, I've got a delinquent fan boy?"

"Hey," Kit cried, "we're not delinquents!"

"Oh yeah?" Spider-Man motioned his masked head at the webbed up body of John Grey. "Are you friends with that guy? He zapped a bunch of visitors with some mind trick and-!"

"No, you've got it wrong!" John cried. Looking at Kit he cried, "Kit, can you get me out?"

"Oh yeah sure." Kit went over and, phasing his hands through the webbing, pulled John out.

Spider-Man watched the five strangers warily. Other than that initial blast-did it really come from that girl's eyes?-and that thing John Grey did with his mind they hadn't done anything aggressive and seem like they were trying to reason with them. Fair enough, he decided, he'd hear them out. "All right," he said, "I'll hear what you guys have to say. But now funny business, or you all get webbed up and I call the cops."

"All right," said John. "Those people in that Jeep-two of them are like me, and they were using their abilities to fix the game so they could clean up betting. I only caught on to them during the second half, so I wasn't able to confront them until the end of the game. I don't like people fixing my games; when I play it's fair and square."

"Nice story," Spider-Man replied. "Now how do I know I can believe you?"

"You can't," John admitted. "You'll just have to take my word for it-Peter Parker." Seeing Spider-Man tense, he added, "And since I used my powers to learn your secret, I think it's only fair that we tell you ours."

* * *

Mysterioss walked into the living room; he'd just finished going over the bills for this month. And they'd given him an enormous headache. The keeping of a household of eight teenagers would have been hard enough under most circumstances. Frieda's appetite alone would be enough to double the food budget; surprisingly Pietra ate nearly as much as. _That girl's metabolism would make her the envy of every teenage girl in Bayville,_ the shapeshifter thought wryly.

On the couch Rogue was laying; his eyes transfixed on the horror movie he was watching. Some zombie garbage the boy seemed to like so much. _He looks so much like his mother,_ Mysterioss absently mused. He wondered how many more were out there; Raymond Darkholme was far older he looked thanks to his shape shifting powers and he'd been with countless women. Yet as far as he knew there was only Rogue and his daughter-

"I can't believe this!" Martin Wyngarde's voice broke Mysterioss's train of thought; he turned to see him, Emmett, Lana, and Morgan enter the house. "Not only do we lose a great score, but we had the chance to learn Spider-Man's secret identity and we blew it! Think what we could get with the blackmail!"

"Getting away was more important," Emmett Frost replied. He rubbed his head which still hurt from the psychic assault that Grey boy had given him. "Besides, I figure I'm going to need a little more practice with mind attacks before I'm ready to go up against him."

"I'm glad you realize that," Mysterioss said as he walked out of the TV room. "So, the four of you have tried to use Emmett telepathy in hopes of cashing in on the game, were you?" The look in Mysterioss's gold eye's reminded Emmett of his father whenever Emmett or any of his siblings had gotten in trouble; Winston Frost was one of those parents who enjoyed catching his children at something naughty and punishing them. "Now tell me everything. And I warn you, I can read a lie on your faces, so tell me the truth."

Sighing, Emmett told Mysterioss about what they'd done at the game, and afterwards. Mysterioss listened and nodded. So the Spider-Man was real, was he? That was a piece of information that could be useful, and he made a note to inform Magnetrix. "You are fortunate that so called hero interfered when he did and you got away. Had you been caught and handed over to the midtown faculty, I would have had no choice but to give you detention for gambling. However…."

"What?" Emmett sensed Mysterioss was leading something here.

"John Grey doesn't want you fixing games? Fine. Don't fix _his _games." The blue shape shifter smiled. "There are at least eight different high schools in this county alone with several others nearby, and they all hold sporting events. You boys want to score, go to their games, when they are not playing Bayville. John won't be there, and if you go to different ones each week no one will see a pattern." He saw the boys nod in agreement. "Just give me-oh, about 25 percent of your take." Seeing them blanch, he added, "Consider it rent money."

"Oh you guys are back?" Pietra had just come down the stairs. "Good. I've got something to show you. Or rather two things. C'mon down, girls!"

Down the steps came Frieda wearing black jeans and a pink sweater that was neither too tight nor too loose which fitted her massive body quite nicely. With her blond hair out of it's braid and moussed and well brushed in a flattering style and modest makeup that highlighted her sparkling blue eyes Frieda actually looked quite pretty-for a girl weighing nearly three hundred and fifty pounds.

The boys' eyes all widened, however, when they saw Tonya with the makeover and outfit Pietra had gotten her into. She was even wearing only a little perfume and it was more than enough to cover her usually horrible body odor. "Tonya," said Martin in disbelief. "You-you look-stunning."

Unused to compliments from guys Tonya blushed. Pietra gave her arrogant grin. "Yeah, I can turn even a toad into a halfway decent looker. I'm good, aren't I? Now, I have you all to work with."

"Hey, speedy," Lana said as she stepped forward, "I don't need a makeover; I'm happy the way I am."

"True. I said yesterday the tough tomboy look suits you. However," and she cocked an eyebrow, "I was talking about THIS!" Pietra sped away in a gust of wind up the stairs came back down, and sped around Lana in a blur. Finally, she stood aside-and Lana was decked out in a white-and brown armor plaited jumpsuit topped by a clear plastic visor. "I made it in only 3 and a quarter seconds-Miss Avalanche." She sped again, this time around Martin, who was soon dressed in a brown duster jacket and puffy white shirt with dark pants, "Mastermind," then to Morgan, who she decked out on a sleeveless pink-bordered black jumpsuit with elbow-length black gloves-"Dark Pixie," and finally to Emmett, "and the White Prince."

All eyes turned to Emmett as he looked in the getup Pietra had put him in. "I can't wear this!" he shrieked. For he was wearing a skin tight white tank top and speedos with knee length boots, gloves, and a waist-length cape of matching color.

"Hey Em," Lana snickered, and the rest were all trying hard not to laugh, "There's this ladies' club on Jefferson that's looking at for some new laptop dancers."

Emmett only glared at Pietra, who just pouted. "But you look so good in white."

"I don't mind the color," Emmett seethed, "or the White Prince moniker. But I will not go out dressed up like the entertainment at a woman's bachelorette party!"

"Well if that's how you feel," said Pietra, "then come up to my room, and I'll have a new one waiting for you."

And with that she walked back up the stairs-not going at super-speed the way she usually did but walking-and swinging her well rounded hips.

Emmett simply scowled as he followed after her. He decided to wait a couple minutes, just to annoy her, then he walked in.

He found Pietra sitting on her bed, with a folded up white suit and cape. Pietra held it up in front of him. "There, I'd say this one suit's you rather well."

Emmett looked the suit over. It was like the outfit she dressed Martin in, save for it was all in white and the jacket was shorter, plus the addition of the cape. "You made this in only a couple of minutes?" He knew she was fast, but this was amazing even for her.

Pietra shrugged. "Actually, I made it before the one you've got on now."

"Then why put me in this?"

"Why," said Pietra and before he knew Pietra had taken off both the tank top and the gloves, "so I could take it off of you!"

"Wha-?" Emmett felt Pietra kneading his buttocks.

"Oh don't be silly," the silver haired speedster giggled coyly. "I saw the way you were looking at me yesterday, and thought-but then I caught a case of Fairy Fever when I saw Morgan. But I'm over it, so now," and she kissed him on the neck, "how about we-?"

"But I have-," Emmett's voice trailed off as Pietra kissed him on the lips and thrust her tongue into his mouth-"a-homework-assignment-." Emmett couldn't finish. He had really only had sex twice in his life-going to an all boys' school and being mainly focused on his studies hadn't given him many chances-but now the urges were driving up in him. Pietra was pretty and eager-more than eager. So Emmett decided his homework could wait.

* * *

"Fascinating," said Charlene Xavier. "Absolutely Fascinating."

She was in the sickbay with Kit, Katrina, and John; Yvonne was off skateboarding with the some of her new friends while Selena had gone to play tennis with her friend Paula. And lying on the examining bed, strip down to his boxer shorts with a scanner ray over him was Peter Parker.

He'd come home with Xavier's students, so they could show him the Institute and explain its purpose. Peter was wary but so far he hadn't felt his spider-sense-tingle. He was only glad his Aunt May out of town on a tour of old Boston with some friends; he really hated the thought of coming up with a cover story.

The female professor continued, "When you told me last night of how you got your powers I assumed that you might still be one of us-that you simply had a dormant X-gene and that radioactive spider bite simply triggered it. Yet when I scanned you with Cerebro it read you as a baseline human-and while the bio-scanner find's no trace of an x-gene, it shows that your body is clearly mutated beyond that of most humans."

"So how would you label me, Professor?" Peter asked.

"I'm not sure." Charlene frowned; what she had learned was troubling her. Peter Parker had been born as a normal human, yet a freak accident had caused him to become a human spider. Were there others like him? If there were, their situation, especially the younger ones, couldn't be that different than those of x-gene mutants, and would need help. But how to find them?

"By the way," said John as he stepped forward to Peter, "I owe you an apology about last night-about looking into your mind and learning your secret. Trust me, I don't like to read people's minds without permission-it just that was the only thing I could think of at the time."

"I-see." Peter looked at Charlene. "May I go now?"

"Stay here at the mansion for a while," said the professor. "See the place, get to know the students; I wish examine my findings some more. At six o'clock, I have a final talk with you and then you may leave."

As Peter left with the others, Charlene took off her wig and rubbed her bald head as she often did when deep in thought. John's behavior last night, like when he used his telekinesis on Frieda Duke's heart, was troubling. She thought back on to when she had first met this boy, the son of her old friend. He had only been twelve and had been on his first date with a girl. They had been walking down the sidewalk and a drunk driver had swerved onto the pavement, barely missing John and killing the girl. Charlene had been visiting John's parents, and had come with them to the accident scene. Sensing the boy's trauma, Charlene had gone into his mind, and learned that seeing the death of his girlfriend had caused John's mutant powers to activate; in his anger he had lifted the car with telekinesis and thrown it several feet, killing the driver and several others in two other cars he'd sent it into.

Charlene had spent the next several days with John, probing his mind and what she found alarmed her. The trauma of the accident and the knowledge that he had killed several people had brought out a different personality, dark, aggressive, and angry. With the power she sensed in him, Charlene did what she had to do. She hated to do it, hated herself for doing it, but she had no choice. She erased from John the memory of killing those people and placed psychic shields in around that persona. When John joined her at the Institute several months later he seemed perfectly normal and the aggression she'd sensed even seemed to find an outlet in his love of sports. But now, she realized, those shields were slipping. She only hoped that they would hold for some more time, and that when he learned the truth, John would forgive that John would forgive her for what she'd done to his mind.

* * *

"Ah, a beautiful day for tennis, isn't it," said Paula Andrews.

"It sure is," agreed Selena. It was still Indian summer, and the weather was surprisingly still warm enough to wear shorts. The girls' tennis season was over, yet Selena wanted to keep up her reflexes. Besides track, tennis was one of the few sports she could participate in little chance of her shades being knocked off and the truth about her 'eye condition' being exposed. She had played basketball and volleyball with the others back at the institute and twice even with special sports shades they'd been knocked off.

They'd just come to the courts when suddenly they saw Emmett and Rogue getting out of Lana's Jeep. "You guys play tennis too?"

Rogue just nodded; Emmett smiled coyly. "It's one of my two favorite sports, and since Bayville doesn't seem to have a fencing club, I thought I'd come down here." He raised a blonde eyebrow. "What say play mixed doubles? I team with you and your friend," he glanced at Paula, "teams with Rogue?"

Selena turned to look at Paula. "What do you say?"

"Sure," Paula said. She looked at Rogue. "All right with you?" she asked the southern Goth boy.

"Fine with me," said Rogue in his usual short-spoken manner.

"As they made their way onto the court, Paula asked, "If you don't mind my asking, why are you always so covered up? I mean I've seen you wearing gloves even when it was unbearably hot."

"Skin condition," Rogue replied.

"Oh." _Like Selena and her eye condition, _she thought.

The game started normal enough, with the ball going back and forth until Selena sent the ball out of court. As Paula got another one Selena thought out to Emmett _Okay, I need to ask you something._

_Oh, so I have your permission, your highness?_

Ignoring the sarcasm, Selena replied, _were you and your pals fixing the game last night?_

Emmett didn't reply immediately; Paula had just lobbed the ball at them, and he batted back at them. _You want to know the truth? Yes, we were fixing the game. So we could clean up betting too. And Mr. 'Fair and Square' cost us all of it!_

Selena barely had time to hit the returning ball with her racket before she could say, _but fixing games is wrong!_

_Why? _Emmett lobbed away the ball Rogue had sent at him, he seemed to be pretty good at speaking telepathically and playing at the same time. _The high school sports association doesn't have anything in its rulebook about using telepathy. Besides, your guardian is a wealthy woman, right? And she probably gives you a big allowance._

Being focused on the game was the only thing that kept Selena from snorting. _"It's only twenty-five dollars a week, plus I have to do chores to get it._

_Well, Mysterioss doesn't give me or the others any money. We've got to come by it any way we can._

The revelation struck Selena so hard the tennis ball hit her knocking her glasses aside. Luckily the strap held hem on her head and she automatically closed her eyes while she adjusted them in place. _You work for Mysterioss!_

Emmett picked up the ball and tossed it to Rogue; it was their ball. _His organization took me in. And they're caring for my sister. Yes, you know about Crystal, don't you? From that machine your dear Professor Xavier uses to spy on us?_

Selena bristled, there was more than enough truth in that charge. Hoping to change the subject she added, _but if you need money, why don't you like, get a job?_

_Oh really,_ replied Emmett. _Slave for minimum wage for some miserable human who'd only treat me like dirt and cut into my study time bringing down my grades. No thank you._

_But you don't have to work for Mysterioss, _Selena thought as she batted the ball back at Paula. _You could come to the Institute. The Professor would take you in, I'm sure._

_She's a hopeless idealist. _Emmett lobbed back at Rogue. _When _they _find out_ _about us, they'll only hate and fear us. They'll try to destroy us-or at best, ones like my father will try to exploit us or experiment on us._

_Not all of them will be like that! _Selena batted away a lob Rogue sent her.

_Oh really, _Emmett replied. _You're only lucky your parents are dead, so you'll never really know how they'd have acted when they found out you were a mutant. And have you ever told Paula about your 'eye condition?'_

Selena had no reply. She liked to think, if her mother and father survived with her then they would have accepted her when her mutant powers activated. After all John's did. So did Kit's, although they'd had issues at first. And the couple that had adopted Katrina already knew she wasn't a normal girl yet from what she told they had loved her fully and unconditionally. Yet Emmett had a point she'd never know.

Selena looked back at Paula. The blonde girl, aside from John, had been her oldest friend since coming to Bayville. Selena remembered all the slumber parties, shopping trips, and study sessions they'd had together-and all this time, because of the Professor's strict rules, Selena had been keeping a _BIG_ secret from her. And it wasn't fair either. Not to Paula. She deserved to know the truth.

And Selena decided she would tell it.

"So, these are all the trophies you've gotten playing sports," said Peter. Peter was amazed; this guy had more than even Flash Thompson or Eddie Brock.

"Yeah," said John. "All the way back to Little League." He looked down at the floor. "And since my powers kicked in, I never once used them to win a game. So I guess, that makes them mean even more to me. Because I know I _earned_ them. That's why I acted like I did when I realized Emmett and Martin were fixing the game."

Peter couldn't believe it. He'd known jocks who were also nice guys like Eddie or Rand Robertson. Yet even they would be boasting when they showed others their medals or trophies. This guy John seemed uncharacteristically modest for their kind. "I still can't believe that you're friends with Flash Thompson."

"More like acquaintances," said John, "Besides, he's not that bad a guy."

"Oh?" snorted Peter. "And how many times has he stuffed you into a locker or taped kick-me signs to your back?"

"Touché," John replied. "But seriously, Flash is simply-thick skinned. When someone does stuff like that to him he simply laughs, and he doesn't really see how other people get hurt by such antics. Although I'd love to see his face if he learned that his favorite hero is really 'Puny Parker.'"

"Oh yeah," Peter grinned as they stepped into the hallway. "I thought he was my alter-ego's biggest fanboy-until I met Kit." The younger boy had followed Peter around most of the day, wanting to know everything about his adventures as Spider-Man and even showed them the mask the police had given Yvonne. Finally John reminded kit he had to finish up a homework assignment that was due Monday. "So don't worry, I'm not going to go telling anybody.

"That is good." The two boys saw Professor Xavier wheeling her chair up the hall. Peter," she added, "I've decided that, after observing you that you can be trusted to keep our secret safe."

"No problem," replied Peter. "Besides, you know mine, so it evens out."

"Indeed. Any," Charlene went on, "even though you are not a mutant, you're situation is similar to ours. So I'd like to offer you a place at the Institute."

Peter just stood for several seconds pondering. "I'm sorry Professor," he finally said, "but I can't. I have obligations back home-like taking care of my Aunt May."

"I understand," said Xavier. "However, what that spider bite did to your body, it may likely have adverse effects. If you ever feel your body acting strangely or changing, don't hesitate to ask and I will give you a full examination, with full confidentiality."

"Oh hi." All three saw Selena Summers come up the stairs, her tennis outfit sweaty from her game.

"Hey Selena," said John. "How was your game?"

"Oh okay." Selena told them how she and Paula met Emmett and Rogue, and played mixed doubles. "Rogue and Paula beat us 20 to 14."

"Selena," said John, "I'd think after what they'd did last night you'd know enough to stay away from them."

"Hey!" Selena said sharply. "I agree that fixing that game was wrong, but we just happened to run into each other at the courts. Besides, Rogue hadn't even been involved in that game last night."

"As far as we know," said John. "But Selena-,"

"Don't 'but Selena' me!" Selena fixed her red-shaded glare on John. "You're not my father and you're not my older brother so you don't get to tell me who I can or can't associate with!" She looked back down at the professor. "Sorry Professor, but I've got to talk to you about something." She looked at John. "We'll talk later."

As Selena went with Xavier Peter said, "Well, it's been fun, but I've got a bus back to Queens to catch."

"Okay." John walked down the stairs with peter and retrieved a set of keys to a van. "I'll drive you to the station.

As they got into the van, Peter asked, "Just out of curiosity, I want to know-what would that professor have done if she decided I couldn't be trusted?"

John let out a short breath. "She would have erased your entire memory of today, and perhaps last night too."

* * *

Back inside the Mansion, Selena and Charlene entered the professor's office. "Tell me, what is it you need to discuss?" Charlene asked after wheeling herself behind the desk.

Selena fidgeted nervously. "It's about my friend Paula…."

END of Chapter 14

_Sorry it took me so long to update; you know the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. __Because of that, I figured I'd give an extra long chapter._

_To those who've only known Flash Thompson from the animated or movie adaptions, his character isn't explored much so he largely comes of as a sterotypical dumb jerk of a jock. In the comics you do see more to him, plus as he and Peter grow up and mature they even become friends. He's really not a total douchebag-just a partial douchebag._

_I've already given the reason Selena plays tennis; as for Rogue it's one of few sports he could participate in without the risk of touching someone._

_I got the idea for what Charlene had done to John from the third X-Men movie-which I thought was crap, except for that part._

_Next chapter is the Turning of the Rogue. In addition to that, Mind Mistress will be having a discussion with Magnetrix of what there respective chidren had done together; Martin has a brother to brother talk with Morgan about girls, and we see another appearance of Adrian Frost, the brother Emmett hates. Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! _


	15. Chapter 15

X-Men Evolution and all related characters are the property of Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee, and anybody else involved in their production. No Money is being made here so please don't sue me-instead sue those $$^$#^^&& who manage my car loan!

Chapter 15

"So why'd you bring me here?" Paula Andrews asked; although she'd been friends with Selena for nearly five years-a long time to a teenager-she could count on her hand the number of times she'd been beyond the front gates of the Xavier Institute. Now here she was, on a picnic table on the side lawn of the mansion, her friend sitting across and staring at her. Strange, the sight of Selena and her perpetual red sunglasses never disturbed her before.

Selena was likewise nervous; she'd spent last night discussing with the professor, Ms. Logan, and Mr. Munro about letting her friend in on the Institute's secret. Ms. Logan was dead set against the idea while Mr. Munro and the professor were cautiously supportive. Ever since Emmett's challenge at the tennis court, the knowledge that she'd been keeping a colossal secret from her friend tore at Selena. "Paula, there's something I need to tell you. How long have we been friends?"

"Since the seventh grade."

"Well, during that time," Selena reached out and took Paula's hand in hers, "there's something I've been keeping from you. And something you really need to know."

"WHAT!" Paula jerked her hand away. "I mean, if you're that way that's okay, but I'm not. I'm still willing to be friends with you but-."

"Huh?" Selena was puzzled for a moment, then realized Paula's mistake. "No it's not that. It's about," and now she lowered her voice, "my 'eye condition.'"

"Oh." Paula let out a short breath. "Is my face red?"

"Sure. But to me it always is." Selena tapped her red sunglasses. "Remember? But I'm getting to the reason I wear these." She decided there was no way around it. Looking to her left she saw a small, withered old tree standing out at the edge of the lawn. "What you're going to see will shock you," she warned. _And if we're lucky that's all it'll do._

Selena shut her eyes tight, moved up her sunglasses and opened her eyes.

BLAM! The tree exploded, and Selena immediately shut her eyes and lowered her glasses. Turning back to her friend, she opened her eyes and looked to see a shocked and staring Paula. "You-you blew that tree apart! Just by looking at it!"

"Yeah," Selena nodded. "I absorb ambient energy around me from the sun, from fire, light bulbs, even static electricity. It concentrates in my eyes, and I release it as concussive force."

Paula sat there, simply staring and blinking a couple of times before she said, "All those years you simply said you had an eye condition-that was it?"

Selena nodded carefully. "Yep. Without these," she tapped her glasses, "I would have to keep my eyes closed all the time."

Paula tried to absorb what that meant. All this time, her friend Selena was a walking time bomb-and she had no idea. She'd always assumed something like Selena's eyes were abnormally sensitive to light and that without her glasses she could likely go blind or something. "You mean that time when you came to school with your makeup all wrong and I scrubbed your face-you could have blown my head off?"

Here it was coming, Selena thought as her heart sank. The rejection, maybe even threatening to reveal everything Selena just said to the world outside. Selena knew what would happen then. She'd have to subdue her friend and take her to Professor Xavier who'd wipe her mind. Selena really didn't want to do that, not least because it also meant her friendship with Paula would be over. "And this is what the 'gifted' means in this place's title."

"Yeah," Selena said, relieved that so far Paula hadn't threatened to do what she feared.

"And none of the others wear glasses like yours."

"John's telepathic and telekinetic as well."

"Meaning he can read minds?" Paula asked. "And move objects just by thinking about it?" Selena nodded. "So that's how he's able to excel at sports and still be a straight A student?"

"No!" Selena said. "Trust me, I study with him-you've studied with him a few times, remember? He keeps his grades up because he studies hard and he wins because he's a good athlete. Heck, he gets angry at the very idea that he might be using his telekinesis to win; he thinks of it as cheating."

"Okay. Now what can the other's do?"

"Katrina can teleport-you know, kind of like how those transporters work in Star Trek? Kit can walk through walls, and Yvonne protrudes these bony spikes out of her body."

"And the grown-ups I've seen here? Are they 'gifted' as well?"

"Mr. Munro can control the weather."

"Now I know you're pulling my leg," Paula said her voice a little lighter.

"No it's true. In fact, I'll even let him show you if you like."

"Okay. And the others?"

"Ms. Logan has these heightened senses and her body can regenerate from just about any kind of injury. Oh, and she has a metal skeleton and these knifelike claws that come out of her knuckles. And the professor-well, she can read your mind like John. Only she's much more powerful."

"And that's what this place is for-for people like you-these 'gifted.'"

"Yes, that's what Professor X set it up for." Relief was filling Selena, maybe things would go as she'd hoped. "When this first happened to me, I was kept in a room and isolated, with a bandage around my eyes." She looked down at the picnic table. Then the Professor found me. And she gave these," Selena tapped her glasses.

Now Paula found herself imagining what it must have been like for Selena. "This is why you don't go out for volleyball or basketball?"

"Yes," Selena nodded. "There's just too big a risk my shades might get knocked off, even with that special sports version I've got for playing tennis. Heck, a couple of times I've played basketball here and they got knocked off."

"But-you've slept over at my house a few times and you've taken them off."

"And I always shut my eyes. Hours and hours of long practice have made it a reflex."

Standing several yards away, the two girls were being watched by Charlene Xavier, Orion Munro, and Ms. Logan. "I still don't like this, Charlie," Ms. Logan grunted.

"It is inevitable that one day we will be revealed to the world, my friend," Xavier said reassuringly. "When that day comes, it would likely be for the best to have some normal humans who will stand alongside us."

"Yeah, if," the Canadian woman grunted.

"Don't be so cynical, dear," Orion placed a hand on her shoulder. "My sister and her husband knew the truth about us long before they learned Yvonne was a mutant and it's worked out well."

"And you know the safeguard if this goes badly," added the professor as the two girls got up and walked over to them. "Well Miss Andrews," asked the professor, now that Selena has revealed to you our secret, how do you feel-about us?"

"It's hard for me to say," said Paula. She looked over at her friend. "But it must have been even harder for you-to tell me all this."  
"But can we trust you to keep the secret of this place?"

Paula hesitated, and then took Selena's hand in hers. "Yes professor, you can."

"Good. Now if you would be so kind," she wheeled her chair back to the mansion, "come with me to my office."

* * *

At a secret location, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, Magnetrix was waiting for a guest in a room she had set up for this very purpose, her only company being Ms. Derwin.

"Ah," she said as a young man in his early twenties arrived, dressed in in an immaculately white business suit and carrying a brown leather briefcase, stepped in. "Welcome, Mr. Frost."

"Mistress," Adrian Frost dipped his head in acknowledgment, and then glanced at Ms. Derwin. "Does she have to be here?"

"I always have her here with me, when I discuss matters of importance with my subordinates." Magnetrix replied, and then asked, "would you care for a drink?"

"Certainly."

Ms. Derwin produced to beer glasses seemingly from out of nowhere, and poured them full of dark, foamy beer. Ms. Derwin took a sip first, and then gave a small nod. Adrian chuckled. "Really Mistress, your paranoia never ceases to amaze me."

"I prefer to think of it as practicality," said the Mistress of Magnetism. "After all, what other uses could I find for her heightened sense of taste and immunity to poison?"

"Do you truly think this Xavier woman will try poisoning you?"

"Charlene? Never." Magnetrix sipped her beer, savoring the rich hoppy flavor. "But I have other enemies, ones who would not hesitate to use any means they can to dispose of me."

"Oh." Adrian lifted his beer to his lips then added, "Since we are drinking together, wouldn't it be polite to remove your helmet?"

Magnetrix gave a small smile. "My young man, I never remove my helmet in the company of a telepath."

"Really; I thought it was to hide the scars from your many face lifts." Magnetrix did not rise to the jibe; as long as they served her purpose well she would tolerate the occasional remark. And she _did _have several face lifts as well as numerous other plastic surgeries; long ago she had learned for a woman beauty was power. Adrian took a long pull on his beer. "Ah_, Bitteburger_. One of the finest beers from Germany."

Magnetrix took a drink from her own beer. "Do you think I would serve my guests swill such as Budweiser or Moosehead?" she asked. "I understand that congratulations are in order for the new CEO of Frost Pharmaceuticals.

"Indeed." Adrian pulled up his briefcase and opened it. Taking out several papers and handing them to Magnetrix he said, "Here are the funds that I can 'divert' from my company without drawing notice."

Magnetrix looked over the figures. "Impressive," she said; even if Adrian Frost was shorting her this would indeed greatly increase the budget for several of her endeavors. Natalie Essex would be most pleased. "I suppose you want to hear of your brother?"

"My curiosity is piqued." Before his powers emerged, Arian couldn't have cared less about Emmett-just an annoying little snot who always managed to upstage him. Adrian got A's-which he worked hard to maintain; Emmett got A-plus's without any sign of effort. When Adrian graduated college and went to work for the family business, a proposal he submitted to his father got rejected in favor of an idea Winston had gotten from Emmett's sophomore economics project. When said idea had bolstered Frost Pharmaceutical's revenue by 30 percent Winston took Adrian aside and told him that Emmett, not him, would be Winston's heir.

Adrian couldn't believe his ears when he heard that. He had tried his best, and when his telepathic powers emerged had used them to learn competitors' secrets and take advantage of them-yet his father never gave him more than a curtly nod for his accomplishments. To think Father would pass everything that should have been his by right of being the oldest son, to that snot who was the only person Adrian couldn't read-it was infuriating. And as he gained more mastery over he found he had limited control over the minds of the weak-willed, and in those with stronger wills-such as Winston Frost-he could plant small suggestions.

Yet try as he could, Adrian wasn't able to turn Winston away from his decision to have Emmett be heir to the Frost Company and fortune. He even tried to get Mind Mistress to change his father's mind yet Magnetrix forbad her- she said that Adrian would have to do this by himself. Yet until Emmett attacked Winston and ran away, Adrian saw no chance. And even then, Winston still tried to keep his eldest from getting what was rightfully his; after his death it had taken weeks for Adrian to be able to bribe, blackmail or threaten the members of the board into naming him CEO. Only after Larry Dray, one of his father's oldest cronies, resigned due to threats, had Adrian been able to assume command.

Nevertheless he kept his face still as he said, "And how fares my runaway sibling?"

"Well enough," said Magnetrix. "According to Mysterioss he's already one of the leading students at Bayville High; he may even be named to the Honor Society next month.

"He always was an outstanding student," muttered Adrian then changed the subject. "Could you show me where my sister is?"

"Indeed. She is at this very base, in the infirmary. Ms. Derwin will escort you."

As Adrian rose to leave the room, the door opened and Jaclyn Wyngarde, also known as Mind Mistress, entered the room.

"I need to speak with the Mistress," Mind Mistress said to the other two. "Alone." With a nod Ms. Derwin and Adrian exited, and the telepath sat down across from Magnetrix.

Magnetrix picked up a fresh glass. "Would you care for a drink? It's really quite excellent, and Ms. Derwin has already tested it for poison."

"No, I don't care for a drink." Mind Mistress looked Magnetrix square in the face; that she had known her for so long and given her such valuable aid had earned her the right. "I have just found out-your daughter and my son-in his bedroom…."

Magnetrix simply shrugged. "I cannot say I blame Pietra," she said. "Your Martin certainly is quite a handsome fellow for someone of his age."

"Not Martin," Mind Mistress let out with some difficulty. "It was-Morgan."

"Really?" Mind Mistress couldn't tell for certain but she thought Magnetrix raised one of her eyebrows. "Normally she doesn't go for them that young, although I suppose his rather _unique_ attributes would make him seem rather exotic."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Mind Mistress could not believe what she was hearing.

"Why are you so upset?" Magnetrix simply refilled her half-empty beer glass. "Surely you know that Martin has been with a few girls; why should Morgan losing his cherry worry you?" Before Mind Mistress could find an answer Magnetrix provided one. "Because he's your youngest-your baby. But Jaclyn, you must realize that he won't stay a baby forever."

"How can you be so casual about that-that...?"

"That my daughter is a slut?" Magnetrix said nonchalantly. "I've known that since she was twelve when I caught her with that high-school boy in her bed. After giving her a physical exam Natalie," she referred to the pale-skinned mutant physician among her Acolytes, "told me that as a side effect of her super-speed, Pietra's hormones are coursing through her at seven times the rate of a normal adolescent, causing her to have an accelerated sex drive. If she is without a boy for too long she will suffer from intense stress that cannot be relieved until she is sated. And it has been impossible to keep track of all the men she's been with since she'd run away and lived on her own in New York for four years."

"You just-left her to herself?" Mind Mistress could not believe what she was hearing. Had Martin or Morgan ran away she would have literally turned heaven and earth to find them.

"I kept my eye on her, and had she been in any real danger I would have stepped in." Now Magnetrix took a long drink from her glass. "Pietra has always been a willful girl, and had I brought her back she would only have run away again. I would have had to have kept her locked up and-I had no wish to do so."

"But why did she run away to start with?" Mind Mistress's curiosity had gotten the better of her.

Magnetrix took a long look into her beer glass. "We had a-disagreement," she finally said, in a tone that said Mind Mistress should ask no further questions."

* * *

Selena was waiting outside the Professor's office with Orion and Ms. Logan. She knew what was going on inside: Charlene Xavier was probing into Paula's Mind to see if she could be trusted with the Institute's secret.

God the minutes seemed like hours as the clock ticked by. Selena kept looking back at the office do, wishing she had x-ray vision to go with her optic blasts so she could see what was happening. She feared that Xavier would find Paula untrustworthy and have to wipe her mind. This also would mean their friendship would be over. Selena didn't want to lose her friend but she didn't want to keep telling her half-truths and lies either.

Finally the door opened. Paula stepped out, and walking over to Selena, enveloped her in a big hug. "She trusts me!" Paula shouted joyfully. "Professor Xavier decided she can trust me."

"Indeed I have." Charlene Xavier was putting her wig back in place as she wheeled out of her office. She looked at Ms. Logan, who was still scowling. "I know you have reservations, and they are not unjustified. But I have done a most through psychic evaluation, and young Miss Andrews truly does care about her friendship with Selena, enough that she will not willing endanger us."

"Not willingly, maybe," the short woman grunted, "but maybe by accident or even coercion-,"

"Duly noted. However, I believe the benefits outweigh the risks." Charlene Xavier turned to Orion. "Mr. Munro, Miss Andrews wishes for Selena to show her around the premises. Could you please accompany them?"

"Gladly, Professor." Selena led her friend along the hallway. "So, how was it?"

"Creepy, kind of," Paula admitted. "First, Ms. Xavier takes off her wig and-I've heard the rumors but they're true! She's really bald!"

"I already knew that," giggled Selena. "We all know that here. She doesn't really mind; the main reason she wears those wigs is they help keep voices out of her head."

"Oh. Like with your shades?" Selena nodded; Paula went on, "Then she touches the side of my head; it's like this weird Vulcan Mind Meld-I really gotta stop watching the Big-Bang Theory-it's like we're taking a walk together inside my head!"

"Yeah I've been there," Selena smiled.

"You ever get used to it? Or does it still creep you out?"

"Both."

"But the thing is, Selena, your Professor decided to trust me! I promise, I won't ever tell anybody about this." She took Selena's hands in hers. "You don't know what this means to me. I mean, yeah I see how you kept it secret, I mean if I were like you guys, I'd want to keep it under wraps too. And that woman there, that short one with the long black hair-she really scares me."

Behind them Orion chuckled. "She's my girlfriend," he said, "and sometimes she frightens _me."_

* * *

"Here she is," Magnetrix's food-taster and personal assistant stood with Adrian over the bed where, dressed in a hospital gown and hooked up to an IV machine, lay the comatose body of Crystal Frost. "Among my various other duties I care for her well-being."

"She looks so peaceful," Adrian mused. "May I have a few minutes alone with her?"

"But of course."

Ms. Derwin turned to go but Adrian stopped her. "Wait a minute." He removed what looked like five volumes of photo-albums from his briefcase. "One of Crystal's favorite pastimes was taking pictures and making them into scrapbooks. These mostly have pictures of her and Emmett; could you please make sure he gets them?" Ms. Derwin simply nodded, took the albums, and exited the infirmary.

Adrian stood looking over his sister for nearly a minute, and his mouth curled up in a smile. "So, sister, here you are. As useless as you ever were." He snickered. "Although now I'll bet caring for you doesn't cost as much as it did when you had your mind and all your functions, doesn't it? You merely coasted through school, dropped out of at least five colleges in two years, ran up huge credit card depts, and Daddy always covered you. You'd get arrested for crack and meth and even shoplifting and the old man would bail you out. The only one of us who was a bigger burden to the family was Cordell, and he was always able to keep his disgraces private. All this time I always did my best for him, tried to be the son he wanted, and all he'd do would be to criticize me and belittle me. He even tried to keep me from inheriting the family fortune, goddammit! He wanted to give to that snot Emmett!" Granted Emmett would have handled it far better than either of the other two Frost siblings but _he_ was both the oldest and capable enough. And for all his telepathic capabilities, he hadn't been able to steer their father from _that _decision.

"But I was able to get him to do something else, dear sister," Adrian said with a grimace. "After that escapade of yours-which I arranged by the way, amazing how easy it is to control a mind that's already high on drugs-dear old Dad's embarrassment and shame were enough that I could get him to have you put in that sanitarium, and then get you lobotomized. You stole Velma from me, Crystal. I was going to ask her to marry me and she dumped me for you!" Adrian might not have gone that far, but at various time he had managed to acquire urine samples of his three siblings and gave them to Dr. Essex. She told him that while Emmett and Cordell both tested positive for the X-Gene Crystal was merely human. Ordinary. Cordell might be useful, despite his irresponsibility, and Emmett too, once he learned his place. "A new world is coming, sister. One I will aid Magnetrix in bringing about. Our brothers, if they prove their worth, may even be princes in the age to come. But I will be a _king_."

* * *

As the months passed very little out of the ordinary happened in Bayville. Oh there was that one time when Katrina accidently got zapped into that other dimension and came back with a young mutant named Forge who'd been trapped there since the 1970's. Although they'd offered him a place at the Institute he turned them down and moved back in with his elderly parents. He did however frequently come by the Institute to help with the maintenance of Cerebro and the electronic defenses-his mutant power was that he was a technological savant.

The holidays came, and, perhaps as a sign of gratitude for Selena's trust in her, Paula invited her to come along on the Andrews' family ski trip in Vermont. School returned in January and within two weeks came the Bayville High Geology club field trip to the Tapo caves.

"What's the big deal?" John asked as he and Selena were busy helping to load up the trailer for the school bus. Earlier that morning the X-men had a danger room session where they were trying to rescue two mutants being held prisoner in a secret facility-only to find the prisoners were automaton mock-ups of Rogue and Emmett Frost that immediately turned on them. "So the professor threw of your game by throwing those two in the simulation. She was trying to teach us to deal with the unexpected."

"Me fouling up isn't the problem," Selena muttered as she secured a snowmobile with a bungee cord.

"Then what is?" John asked. "Because he chose Rogue?"

"Have you been reading my mind?" When John shook his head, Selena went on, "How are we going to convince this guy we want to be his friend while at the same time we're pretending he's the enemy in battle simulations? "

"Hey, no one wants you to stop trying with Rogue. Certainly you can manage better than I did with Frieda." John's faced darkened, and Selena could tell he was still blaming himself for what happened with the Bulk.

She gave a small chuckle. "Now I know you didn't read my mind." Seeing John's puzzled look she added, "I was also thinking the same about Emmett."

"_WHAT?" _John glared at Selena. "Look, I feel the same as you about Rogue, but that Emmett guy's bad news."

"Because you caught him fixing that game? John, give it a rest." Selena sighed as she checked the next snowmobile. "He hasn't been other games has he? Besides, I've been talking with him and, well, I think I understand him a little."

"You've been talking with him?"

"Hey, I ran into him at the Y," Selena said defensively. "We had a game of squash ball, and he explained the reason he attacked his father was because the guy put his sister into that loony bin when he thought she was simply getting treated for her drug problem. He ran away, then tried to spring her from the place, only to find out she'd been lobotomized."

"And you believe him?" John's voice was dubious.

"Hey, I checked it out on the internet," Selena explained. "The mental institution mentioned-after the riot where Emmett's sister disappeared, the authorities found evidence the place was performing illegal lobotomies. And Emmett even admitted, after he attacked his father and ran off his used his telepathy to blackmail people for money." Seeing John scowl she added, "Hey, you or me never faced having to live on the streets, have we? I mean, not that that it makes it right but if we understand him then maybe we can get through to him."

"Hmmph," John grunted. "Okay, I promised I'd back off and I mean it. But I still don't like it."

"Good." Despite herself Selena couldn't help but be amused that someone as nice and good natured as John could dislike someone the way he seemed to dislike Emmett. "Now, let's forget about those two and get finished loading up.

Unknown to the two mutants, their principal Raymond Darkholme was listening from a nearby corner, and had heard every word.

Inside the school gymnasium, two boys covered head to toe in fencing gear were going at each other, their foils flicking in and out like snakes' tongues. "I got to admit," said one boy in an aristocratic New England accent, "for a newbie, you're pretty good with a foil."

"Ah like learnin' new ways ta' fight," the other boy answered with a thick southern drawl as he blocked the other's thrust with a parry, then lunged back with a counterthrust. But his opponent, more experienced in fencing, took advantage of his over-aggressive thrust; placing the tip of his foil underneath the other's hilt and gave a hard flip.

The other boy's foil was yanked out of his grasp and flew up into the air; as it descended the first boy caught the hilt, and held both tips at his opponent's throat. "Looks like I win, eh?"

"Oh yeah?" Suddenly the one with the southern drawl thrust his leg in between the first's and twisted, tripping him down on his face. In an instant, the second boy was on the first one's back. "That's not how you fence!"

"Play by the rules and you set yourself up for a fall."

"If that how we're playing then-," the second boy felt the first one's body become impossibly hard, then was thrown across the room.

Getting to his feet, the boy angrily took of his fencing mask. "Ya went diamond on me!"

"You cheated first." Emmett Frost got to his feet and removed his own mask, showing he indeed had gone diamond. "And what are you going to do about it?" Rogue grimaced; in diamond from Emmett was simply too strong for him and also he'd found Emmett to be immune to Rogue's powers in diamond state.

Sighing Rogue stared out at the window and saw Selena and John packing the trailor. "This trip will be fun," he overheard John predict.

"You eying Shades?" Emmett came up beside Rogue. "She is pretty, isn't she?"

"Selena?" Rogue snorted. "Ah'm not interested in her. And why'd you be; you're shagging the speedy girl along with Pinky," giving his nickname for Morgan.

"And so is half the male student body at Bayville." Soon after Pietra was enrolled at Bayville she acquired a reputation as a skank-which she revealed in. Emmett had slept with her a few more times after that night, but as enjoyable as it was-and it most certainly was; Pietra knew how to do things with her super-speed that could take a guy's breath away. But still, Emmett realized he wanted something more. "You get tired of sluts like her," he said, careful with how put his words. Rogue's powers likely meant he was doomed to a life of celibacy and discussing matters like this with him wasn't easy.

"You're both wasting your time." The two boys turned and saw Principal Raymond Darkholme enter the gymnasium. "She's never going to be your friend."

"What do you want?" Emmett asked.

"Just to remind you two boys who your friends really are." He turned his gaze on Rogue. "Have you forgotten how Selena Summers and those other X-Men attacked you, Rogue?" The pale-skinned boy shook his head; his memories about that night were hazy yet he clearly remembered Selena and other X-men coming after him. Especially that jock John Grey. "And just earlier I heard how them discussing their simulated battle sessions-with YOU as their target."

"And you Emmett," Darkholme shifted to the other boy. "Remember how that Grey boy had robbed your of your winnings at Midtown?" Emmett grit his teeth, it was still a sore point with him. One day, he'd give John Grey payback but not just yet. He'd need practice with his telepathy to defend himself and counter someone as powerful and well trained as that self-righteous jock.

Darkholme dropped a pair of backpacks on the floor. "Enjoy the fieldtrip boys. It should be most enlightening to the both of you."

Rogue picked up his backpack and walked out the gymnasium. But when Emmett reached for his, Darkholme shook his head. "Not you Emmett. It seems Mind Mistress has some free time that she'd like to spend with you." His form shifts into the exact mirror image of Emmett. "I'll be taking your place."

Selena and John had finished packing the trailer when Selena's least favorite cheerleader came up to the bus. "Hey Johnny," she called out to John, wiggling her hips, "You ready to go off to the caves?"

"Sure thing sweetheart," John said as he stepped off the trailer and let Deanna wrap both her arms around his right. _Geez, this trip hasn't even started and I already need a barf bag, _Selena groaned inside her head. But as the two approached the bus entrance, Mr. Hardesky the earth science teacher stepped in front of them. "I'm sorry I'm sorry but you two aren't going I'm afraid," the teacher said as he checked a mark on his clipboard. "You, Mr. Grey have too many absentee days on your record-,"

"But those were all approved!" John protested. "If you check with Professor Xavier I'm sure that-,"

"I'm sorry but I don't have time," said the teacher. He turned his gaze to Deanna. "And you were seen shopping at Macy's at on a day when you supposedly were home with the flu."

"That's not true!" Deanna shouted indignantly. "I was out home sick, you can check with-,"

"Listen you two your places have already been taken by two new students." Hardesky motioned with his pencil to show Rogue and Emmett Frost getting onto the bus.

John's shoulders slumped. "C'mon Deanna," he said, then looked at Selena who was just behind him. "Have fun on the field trip," he said.

Sighing, Selena got on. She wasn't happy that John was being left behind, but she wasn't sorry she wouldn't be spending the weekend with Deanna either.

As the bus drove away, John angrily kicked away a pebble. "I was really looking forward to this trip too."

"Well," said Deanna, "my folks are out of town for the weekend. And since there's the maid has the night off-..."

* * *

Charlene Xavier sat watching the snow falling through the window in her office. It looked so beautiful, so peaceful, she felt herself truly calm.

She reached across her desk and picked up a small framed picture. Although she'd kept it there ever since she opened the Institute none of her students or staff ever noticed the picture; they just overlooked it. It showed herself at a younger age before she needed a wheelchair. With her were several others-Sian Cassidy, who was only sixteen then, a wild red haired Irish girl so full of life. Terrance Fox, the boy who could talk to machines as if they were people. Hannah McCoy, the physically agile yet socially awkward scientific genius. She still kept in contact with them; Sian had gone home to Ireland where she was raising her son. Hannah was in R&D for Tony Stark. And Terrence had found his own computer company.

Her thoughts sadden as she looked at the others. Armanda Muniz, who she nicknamed Darwina, dead these twenty years. Angelo Salvador. Raymond Darkholme. And Erika Lensherr. _We had traced Darwina's killers, and found they were planning to ignite a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union, _Charlene reminisced. _We stopped them. The perpetrators got away, thanks to Angelo's betrayal but we stopped them. _

And in return both governments had tried to kill them. And they had killed Myron Kinross. The man she loved.

Suddenly the windows snapped open. The portrait flew from Charlene's hands, and floated to the open windows, and her own chair found itself moving from behind her desk as if under its own power and wheeling towards the floating red and purple clad figure. "Erika."

"Charlene." the Mistress of Magnetism was holding the portrait in her hands. "Reminiscing on old times, are we?" Before Charlene could reply she went on, "I must congratulate you on your young charges. They seem to be-flourishing-under your tutelage."

"I'm quite proud of them."

"Proud-but you don't trust them."

"But I do trust them," Charlene retorted. "With my life."

"But not with THE TRUTH!" The open windows slammed shut, shattering the glass. Magnetrix flew away, leaving the portrait of the first X-men right in Charlene Xavier's lap.

* * *

The school bus headed up the through the mountain roads, the students inside excited at seeing the thick snow falling to the ground. Except for Rogue, who was staring at a fading picture of a young woman with thick curly hair marked by a white stripe similar to his own.

Emmett, who was sitting next to him, asked, "Your mother?"

"How'd ya know?"

"She looks enough like you, and judging by the age of the picture, it was easy enough to guess."

"Wow, ya really are a smart guy." Rogue wasn't sure if he was impressed or being sarcastic. "The folks at the orphanage said she left it there when she dropped me off-and that she wanted me to have it." He let out a long sigh. "I don't know if she was some confused teenager, a hooker, an absconding wife or a woman who simply got knocked up and couldn't take care of a baby. And this picture's all I have of her."

Before he could say anything more suddenly the bus skidded. In the midst of everyone panicking, Rogue saw Selena open the window and lift up her sunglasses. Her optic blast caused enough snow to pile up and act as a cushion, preventing the bus from falling off a nearby cliff. Rogue saw Selena look around, obviously worried someone had seen her. Then her shaded eyes fell on Rogue and Emmett, who both smiled back at her.

Mr. Hardesky tried to drive away, but the bus was stuck. "Alright people, the trip is over," he said over several students' groans. "Now get out and push; once the bus is clear we head back."

Rogue stood up. "Mr. Hardesky," he said, "why don't we just take our snowmobiles to the cave, and wait out the storm there?"

"Yeah!" cried one student. "Love that idea!" said another. Hardesky simply shook his head and groaned; it looked like this trip was going to go ahead where he wanted it or not.

* * *

"Why not tell them the truth Charlie?" Ms. Logan said as she puffed on a cigar in front of the fireplace.

I don't know," Charlene replied. Taking a long drag on her cigarette. She knew she should quit; while Ms. Logan's healing factor protected her from cancer she knew she herself was not so fortunate. Yet smoking whenever she had a problem on her mind was a long habit.

"Listen," Ms. Logan took her cigar from her mouth and blow a smoke ring, "if there's one thing those kids are used to dealing with its keeping their cool and keeping their secrets."

"True," said Charlene, "but I also tried to teach them to have respect for proper authority How do I tell them that their principal, whom they're supposed to respect, and their enemy are one and the same?"

Before the Canadian woman could answer Orion Munro entered the room with John Grey. "There's trouble brewing," the white-haired African man said.

"Yeah," added John. "There's a big snowstorm in the mountains where the geology club's having their field trip."

"John," replied Charlene, "I thought you were going with them."

"So did I," muttered John resentfully, "until I got deep-sixed at the last minute to make room for Rogue and Emmett."

Now Charlene was alarmed. "You're right," she said. "Trouble is brewing John. And I'm afraid there's something I need to tell you and the other students…."

* * *

"Are you CRAZY!" Emmett cried to Rogue as they got off their snowmobile at the mouth of the caves. "You could have gotten us killed!"

"I got us here first, didn't I?" Rogue looked up to see Selena arrive with her friend Paula Andrews's arms around her. "Hey Shades," he called out, "No trophies for second place."

Selena got up from her snowmobile and removed her helmet. "How'd a guy from the Deep South learn to operate a snowmobile like that anyway?"

Rogue smirked. "Let's just say I'm full of surprises."

The other students and Mr. Hardesky joined them within a couple of minutes, and the trip went on as planned. Mr. Hardesky began with a series of lectures about the different types of rock in the caves. "This here, he said," is a metamorphic rock. It was once an igneous or sedimentary rock, before it was changed by heat or pressure. It was once one thing now it's another. A mutation."

Selena was listening, trying to absorb all this when she noticed out of the corner of her eyes Rogue and Emmett parting away from the group into the deeper caves. "Excuse me," she told Paula, "But I've got to check something out. "

She followed the two boys, turning her flashlight on as soon as they were out of her sight. "Rogue?" she called out. "Emmett?" Maybe this was a bad idea; even with her flashlight it was hard to see alone in these caves, especially with her sunglasses.

"Whoa," she cried as she stepped forward and her foot touched empty air. Stepping back, she looked and saw that she nearly had stepped off a ravine overlooking an underground river.

"Tell us the truth Selena." Selena turned around and saw Rogue and Emmett step out from the shadows. "Are we targets for you and your X-Freaks?"

"What are you-?"

"Why don't you tell us-about your battle simulations?" said Emmett. "You know, where we're the enemy?"

"Look, it's complicated-,"

"So you admit that you hold them?" Emmett continued.

"Yes-but guys, we've never tried to hurt you."

"Then why'd you attack me down in Mississippi then?" Rogue asked defiantly.

"That wasn't us," Selena insisted. "That was Mysterioss impersonating us. Rogue look, you're being lied too; we've never tried to hurt you. And Emmett," she looked at the other boy, "I checked up on that sanitarium where you told me your sister had been held. I believe you; everything the police found collaborates with your story."

"Just what do you want from us Summers?" Rogue asked.

"We-I-don't want anything from either of you," Selena said. "Except maybe your friendship."

"Hey guys." All three turned to see Paula walking in on them. "Guys, what're you doing? Hardesky's got the whole group looking for you."

"And you should have stayed with them, little girl." Emmett stepped forward, and his features melted away to those of Raymond Darkholme. He smiled as the blonde girl gasped in horror while his right hand closed around her throat. "Hello Selena," he chuckled as he turned to the brunette. "Are more surprised to see me," and his form again shifted, to the red haired and blue skinned Mysterioss.

"Principal Darkholme?" Selena cried. "You're Mysterioss?"

The blue man laughed with his hand still around Paula's neck. "Something Charlene Xavier never bothered to tell you. Nice of her, wasn't it? You have no idea what he's been hiding from you."

"Whatever." Selena's hand went to her visor. "Just let Paula go. Or I'll-,"

"Or you'll what? Cause a cave in?" Mysterioss cackled. Angrily, Selena lowered her hand, realizing the shape shifter was right.

"What's going on, Mysterioss?" Rogue cried. "Where's Emmett?"

"With Mind Mistress, undergoing special lessons in how to use his telepathy," Mysterioss answered. "I've noticed these past several weeks Miss Summers has been talking with you, trying to draw you into their web. And I can't have that. Not with you. Remember that picture you showed me on the bus of your mother?" Rogue nodded. "Her name was Priscilla, from Augusta Georgia. She was a waitress at a small café on the corner of Fifth Street and Main. And I shared a bed with her, the night you were conceived." Seeing the look of shock come over Rogue's face, he continued, "That's right Rogue. I am your father. You are my son."

"What-whatever." Rogue had managed to regain some composure. "Just let Paula go. She's got nothing to do with this."

"Oh but I'm afraid she does," said Mysterioss as he lifted the struggling girl off the ground. "She knows too much. And Selena," he turned to the brunette who was still standing at the cliff, "you X-Men are nothing but puppets for Charlene Xavier. And I am a sharp blade cutting your strings!" Before he finished speaking he tossed Paula at Selena, knocking her off her feet and sending the two girls over the precipice.

End of Chapter 15

_Sorry it took so long for me to update. I would have done so last week but I've been having trouble with my internet connection _

_Okay, I figured that Mysterioss would more likely be to have a strong interest in Rogue if the latter was his biological son rather than adopted. And you can guess what this will mean down the line._

_Will Paula survive this escapade? If she does will she still want to be friends with Selena? How will Selena feel about nearly getting her friend killed?_

_Emmett's brother Adrian will be seen more as the story progresses. How will Emmett react when he learns the brother he hates is one of Magnetrix's Acolytes? And how will he fare the next time he goes against John Grey?_

_And the portrait I mentioned earlier. I got the idea from the X-Men First Class Movie. Who do you think the people mentioned are supposed to be?_

_ Oh, and I probably should have mentioned that Ms. Derwin is a gender bent verison of an OC I created for a different fic a couple of years back. I always figured since Magneto is likely rather paranoid, and his powers wouldn be of much help if he got poisoned he'd likely keep a food-taster who could also act as a body servant and off hand adiviser. True a mutant whose powers are a heightened sense of taste and immunity to poison wouldn't seem to be of much use but this role would be perfect. _


	16. Chapter 16

X-Men Evolution and all related characters belong to Marvel, Stan Lee, WB and anybody else involved in producing the show. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-your court costs would be more than what you'd get from me anyway.

Chapter 16

"WHAT'D YA DO THAT FOR?" Rogue cried, his anger making his southern accent sound harsher and more pronounced. "Paula wasn't part of this, why couldna' ya just let her go?"

"An unfortunate necessity," said Mysterioss. "Had I done so, she would have told of us and I cannot allow that. The time is not right. And as for the Summers girl, she only wants to use you. Just like Charlene Xavier all the other X-Men."

"And you don't-," Rogue couldn't resist lacing the last word with sarcasm, "_Dad?"_

"We will discuss this matter later, my son." Mysterioss's form shifted back to that of Emmett Frost. "Now let's return, and break the tragic news."

He smirked as he held out his hand, until he saw Rogue remove the glove form his right hand. "No more," Rogue said quietly. "No more secrets!" He immediately grasped Mysterioss's hand. "Your powers are mine! Your memories are MINE!"

Mysterioss fainted as the energy flowed out of him and into Rogue. And along with his energy, Rogue now had his memories.

_He was sitting at a diner in Augusta Georgia. A rather well-endowed waitress, identical to the woman in Rogue's photograph, walked up to his table; the name PRISCILLA was written across her nametag. "Hey Sugar," she said with an obvious southern accent, "what'll ya be havin'?"_

_They were in a small motel room together, on the bed and naked. She moaned as his lip suckled on her bare left breast and he thrust himself into her, their mutual pleasure mounting higher and higher._

_He was standing in front of Irene, the expression on her face angry yet concerned. "That boy," she whispered, pointing at a younger version of Rogue, "is the one in my vision. I'm certain of it! But more, he's the result of that fling you had in Georgia."_

"_Absorbing her memories and abilities," he muttered as he sat with Irene in a car. "Wonderful."_

"_He should be willing to join us," he said as his form shifted to that of Lady Wolverine, "given the right incentive._

Rogue backed away, staring at the prostrate body of Mysterioss. He didn't want to believe what went through is head but it was true. And the one part that wished was a lie was true.

And Irene was a part of it all. The woman who raised him, whom he'd loved like a mother, had been part of Mysterioss's plan to use and manipulate him.

He rushed over to the edge where Selena and Paula had fallen! "Selena!" he cried out. "Selena, Ah'm so sorry; y'all were right! I-,"

"Could you save the apologies for later?" Rogue looked down and to his relief saw a small rocky protrusion where Selena and Paula were standing.

"Ya gals are alive!"

"Which we won't be for long if you just keep standing there." Selena looked up and Rogue saw that her ruby-quartz sunglasses had been knocked off, which meant she had to keep her eyes shut tight.

"Oh right. Yeah." Rogue had absorbed Mysterioss's shape-shifting powers along with his memories; concentrating he turned the ends of his fingers into spike-like claws projecting out of the ends of his gloves. "Don't worry, I'm comin' for ya!"

He lowered himself down the wall of the cliff, managing to reach the girls in about thirty seconds. "All right," he said, "Ah'll take you both up top."

"Take Paula first," Selena said, her eyes shut tight. "You can come back down for me later."

"But Ah-,"

"No buts," said Selena in a voice that wouldn't brook any argument.

"Okay." Rogue looked at Paula, who'd been staring wide-eyed at the sight Rogue clinging to the side of the cave wall. "C'mon Paula, we haven't got day."

"Right." Paula reached over and wrapped her arms tight around Rouge's shoulders.

"Hold on tight," Rogue said he pulled himself up with Paula on his back.

They had halfway reached the top of the cliff when Paula asked, "So you, you're like Selena and the others at that Institute?"

"Ya might say that," Rogue said shortly; he really had to concentrate at the task at hand.

"And your power is that you can stick to rocks?"

"No." Rogue didn't have time to say any more, for suddenly his left hand reverted to normal. The power he'd absorbed from Mysterioss was wearing off. "Oh no," he said in horror as the claws on his right reverted back too.

"What's wrong-YYYYAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Paula screamed along with Rogue as they fell down the cliff. Hearing their screams, Selena strained her ear and got knocked and fell along with them down into the stream below.

Mysterioss came to just as the three teenagers hit the water. Rushing to the edge of the cliff, he saw the current carry them away to an opening of the cave where he knew a waterfall was waiting. He stood up the, shifting his form to a bat he flew off after them.

* * *

"How could you keep this from us?" John asked. "I mean, Principal Darkholme is Mysterioss? Why couldn't you-?"

Suddenly the phone rang. "I'm afraid I must answer this," Charlene Xavier said. John nodded in agreement but the look on his face said he'd want to talk some more.

"Hello?" Charlene answered the phone. "Yes, this is Charlene Xavier. What? Really? Why yes, just keep me notified."

"Who was that?" John asked, noting the worried tone in the professor's voice.

"Your geology teacher Mr. Hardesky. It seems that Selena went off, along with her friend Paula, young Mr. Frost, and Rogue. Mr. Hardesky's been searching for them, but so far has been able to find any sign."

"That Frost guy." John grit his teeth. "If he's hurt her-,"

"We don't know that John," Professor Xavier replied. "Nevertheless, get suited up and get down to the Blackbird. It seems we'll be taking a little trip to the caves."

* * *

"WHOA!" all three teenagers cried as the current carried them outside the cave, over the waterfall, and landed on a natural bridge.

Selena tried to get up but she could barely move; the pain she felt all over her body was too unbearable. "Everyone all right? Where are we?"

"We're outside," said Paula, shivering. "And other than that we're all wet and freezing and on a slab of rock hundreds of feet in the air with the freezing wind blowing in our faces, I'm just dandy."

Rogue knelt down over Selena, his face a mask of worry. "Oh Selena," he said. "Ah'm-ah'm so sorry Ah got you both mixed up into this. Ah touched Mysterioss and-y'all are right. He has been lying to me from the start."

"No-," Selena coughed, "need to apologize. You saved our lives."

"Ah-Ah owed it to ya." Rogue closed his eyes as he felt tears welling up inside. He fought them back then added, "The worst part is, Irene's part of all this."

"Hey," Selena said, "it's all right. Sometime it's hard to understand adults-it's like they don't trust us."

"Not just adults," Paula said in sharp tone as she shivered. "You knew about that shape shifter guy and didn't tell me about him

"Look, I didn't know Mysterioss was principal Darkholme," said Selena. Truth was there was a lot she hadn't told Paula.

"Not that it matters," said Paula. For the edge of the natural bridge was cracking, and very soon would give way.

* * *

"Can't you give us a little more sunshine?" snarled Lady Wolverine as she piloted the Blackbird through the thick blizzard.

"I'm a weather wizard, not a snowplow," Shango shot back as he tried his best to keep the wind at bay. "I'm doing the best I can!" Although he was still thought of back in his home village in Kenya as an avatar of the storm deity Shango Orion Munro knew he was neither omnipotent nor all powerful where weather was concerned. Just keeping this northern gale from blowing the Blackbird off course was taxing his powers to their limit.

Charlene Xavier and John Grey were sitting in the passenger seats; Charlene had her wig off and both were touching the temples of their heads, trying to locate Selena and the others through telepathy. _Selena, are you there? _Charlene thought. _Selena can you hear me?_

Selena suddenly jerked as she heard the Professor's thoughts inside her head. _Professor, I'm here! _She thought, as loud as she could.

"It's Selena," said Charlene put her hands on her lap. "She's down on a natural bridge with Miss Andrews and Rogue. But-she's hurt."

"Did that guy Emmett-," John began.

"No," Charlene said. "It seems our friend Mysterioss has been impersonating young Mr. Frost on this trip. But we have to find Selena and the others, and quickly."

"So," said Paula, trying to get her mind off the cold and blowing wind, "your power is that if you touch someone you absorb their energy and their memories?"

"Yeah," Rogue nodded. _My God, we're all gonna die and she wants to talk about my powers?_

"Hey guys," Selena breathed out. "Guys the professor's just spoken to me. She and the rest of the X-men are here but-they can't find us."

"Well we'll give them something to see," said Rogue. "Open your eyes." Selena did, and a wide, massive red beam shot out at the sky.

The Blackbird was fifty feet away from where the optic blast sliced through the clouds. "There!" the professor cried. "Ms. Logan, take us down there!"

Back on the bridge Rogue eyed the cracking edge feeling it give way bit by bit under their combined weight. _Oh c'mon, please_ he thought, _please get here quick. Just please, I don't care about myself, just get Selena and Paula out of this alive._

Suddenly out of the corner of his eyes he saw a grey shaggy wolf lurch forward onto the bridge, its jaws wide open and saliva dripping from its fangs.

Paula saw it too. "But-but I thought there weren't any more wolves in New York! That they'd all been hunted out a hundred and fifty years ago."

Rogue suddenly understood as the wolf walked up snarling to the three. "It's Mysterioss," he said firmly. He carefully touched Selena's forehead, with the fingers of his glove torn he didn't need to remove it. "Let me tell you something old man," he said his eyes started glowing red. "You may have brought me into the world," and a red beam shot from Rogue's eyes, "but AH CAN TAKE YOU OUT!"

The beam shot Mysterioss off the bridge and he fell several feet before morphing into an eagle and flying back up. But as he reached the bridge, he saw the X-Men's Blackbird lowering down in front of him. The hatch of the plane opened, revealing a very angry looking Lady Wolverine.

"Don't even think about it, Mysterioss," the feral woman snarled as her claws popped open. Seeing he was defeated, the shape shifter in eagle form flew away.

With the aid of John's telekinesis, the three teenagers were lifted into the Blackbird. Ms. Logan gave Rogue and Paula blankets which they quickly wrapped around themselves, while John lowered Selena onto a special flatbed in the rear set up for emergency medical purposes.

"Is she-is she going to be all right?" Paula asked concerned about her friend, who'd passed out.

"She should be," Ms. Logan said as she looked Selena over. She'd been a nurse once-she couldn't remember when, obviously from before she'd had adamantium put on her skeleton and her memories wiped yet she still had the skills. "She's got a chill, and she may catch a cold but she'd got no signs of internal bleeding or serious injury."

"That's so good to hear," Rogue sighed in relief.

Lady Wolverine turned to the southern boy. "Where's you allegiance kid," she said quietly, "us or them?"

Rogue felt all his suspicions and mistrust return. "If Ah don't say you," he asked, "do Ah get thrown out of this jet?"

Lady Wolverine shook her head. "Nope, not our style. Either we've earned your trust by now or we haven't."

Rogue looked down at the floor of the Blackbird. "You," he said. "Definitely you."

"Well," Lady Wolverine said with a smile, "welcome to the X-Men."

* * *

"It's the same as lying to us," John said. He and the rest of the X-Men were in Charlene Xavier's office. "We had a right to know who our principal really was."

"Ja, man," agreed Katrina. "Vhat did you think ve vere going to do? Go after him?"

"We know better than that," added Yvonne. "He wants to pretend like there's nothing going down, then so can we."

"It's like we were playing with fire and didn't even know it," said Kit.

Charlene Xavier nodded as she rubbed her bald head; after rescuing Selena, Paula and Rogue she had with John's help she had managed to erase form everyone on the field trip that they had even been on. The process had greatly taxed her powers and gave her an enormous headache.

She looked at Rogue who was standing off to the side. "Rogue? We'd like a word from you."

Rogue sighed and glanced down. "It's not really my place."

"Sure it is," said Kit. "You're one of us now and we'd like your input."

"Yeah, man, tell us what you think," Yvonne added.

"Well," said Rogue slowly, "I think-no, I've learned, that since I was eight, I've been lied to and manipulated by a father who's wanted to use me. And I can't put up with that. Not again."

"You're right Rogue," said Charlene. She let out a long sigh as she put her wig back on. "I must apologize to all of you, for keeping this secret from you. But you must understand, for all of you the future holds many challenges and surprises. Some you're ready to deal with-and some you're not. And I promise I'll be more careful trying to determine which is which."

"Thanks Professor," said Selena. She stood up. "Besides, I'm hardly in a position to throw stones right now."

"I understand," Charlene nodded and Selena walked out the door.

She made her way down to the upper room infirmary where Paula was waiting with Ms. Logan. "Hi Paula." She looked over at Ms. Logan. "Could you leave us alone for a minute?" Ms. Logan nodded and exited the room.

Selena sat down next to her friend and took her hand in her own. "Paula-I'm so sorry."

"Sorry? For what?"

"Excuse me?" Selena couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Paula, I nearly got you killed."

"Oh?" snorted Paula. "I thought it was that shape shifter guy-who by the way happens to be our principal-that knocked us over the cliff."

"But, if it hadn't been for me it never would have happened."

Paula rubbed her forehead and let out a long breath. "Look Selena, I was the one who stumbled on you. Besides, you didn't know that this Mysterious guy-,"

"Mysterioss," Selena corrected.

"Whatever. Anyway, you didn't know that he's principal Darkholme, did you? And even if you did, you couldn't tell him when he's disguised, could you?"

"No," Selena admitted. Ms. Logan could sniff him out and the professor could sense her presence, but Selena's own powers could never help her identify Mysterioss in an altered form.

"So you really got nothing to apologize for," said Paula.

"I do," Selena insisted. "Paula, I told you before why we kept our selves secret, because the world isn't ready to know about us. Well, there are other mutants who think, because they have these powers, that they have the right to do whatever they want. That they're above the rest of humanity. They want to provoke a war that they hope will put them on top. And Mysterioss is their leader."

"Wow. The principal of our school is an evil shape-shifter bent on world domination."

"It's no laughing matter, Paula!" Selena knew Paula's family was German on her mother's side; maybe somewhere along the line she was related to Katrina. That sure would explain a lot. "Because we don't agree with them and try to stop them, we're targets for them. And it means if you're my friend, you'll be putting your life at risk."

"Well it's my life to risk, isn't it?" Paula now sounded serious. "Selena, we nearly got killed but it wasn't your fault. And I get that we can't go to the cops about this without revealing yourselves. But Selena, you're my friend. And friends stick by each other, even when it gets dangerous. Besides, I don't think he'll try anything when we're at school or where there are a whole bunch of potential witnesses. And besides," she squeezed Selena's hand, "I'd really hate to lose such a really good friend."

Selena smiled. "I don't deserve you Paula."

"True." Paula smirked. The two girls stood up and walked out of the room together.

"Say you know," Paula said, "that Rogue guy is kind of cute-in a moody anti-social kind of way."

"I've got to warn you, said Selena, "the last girl he kissed wound up in a coma."

End of chapter 16

_Because I took so long to update with the last chapter, I tried to bring this one in as quick as possible._

_Next chapter: Rogue settles in at the mansion and gets Kit for a roommate and has to deal with the fact that he's Mysterioss's son. Charlene goes down to Mississippi to tie up a loose end, and Yvonne gets a special assignment to bring up her grades in Current Events. And what was the rest of the Brotherhood up to while Mysterioss was away? _


	17. Chapter 17

X-Men Evolution and all related character belong to Marvel, Stan-Lee, and WB. I'm not making any money so please don't sue me-instead sue the people who cast January Jones as Emma Frost in X-Men First Class!

Chapter Seventeen

Mysterioss flew down to the ground, furious at Charlene Xavier, at Selena Summers, at his son Rogue-and although he wouldn't admit it, at himself. His son had gone over to the X-Men. There was a way to get him back though, and the most ironic part was, it would involve the using the very law the Charlene Xavier always said that mutants should respect. As he reverted back to his normal form a smile rose to his lips.

His smile faded as soon as he saw the unfamiliar cars parked out on the lawn, the bright lights and loud music playing from the house. Oh, those kids were in so much trouble now.

* * *

Orion Munro's fingers glided over the piano keyboard as he played through the final chords of Duke Ellington's _Sophisticated Lady. _ As the song ended, Jim Beranger the nightclubs owner, walked out on stage and said, "Let's hear it for Bayville's own Storming Blues, everyone!" As applause filled the club, Orion looked out the corner of his eye to see one woman sitting in a booth off to the side.

The Curtain fell, and Bela Horthy, a Hungarian who led the band sand, "All right, they've got about five acts before our next number so let's all take five. And Orion," he winked at the piano player's direction, "why don't you go spend some time with your lady friend?"

"Yeah, you better," said Gil Jackson, the Storming Blues' saxophone player, "or someone just might steal her away from you. Like me."

Orion smiled as he put on his fedora hat and picked up his jacket. "Carful Gil," he replied. "You want her you've got to like living dangerously." He gave a smile chuckle as Gil did his best to keep off the good-natured ribbing that came his way.

Going off stage and coming out to the club through the side door, Orion walked straight over to the both where a nearly unrecognizable Ms. Logan was sitting.

He stopped just in front of the booth. "What's a beautiful lady like you," he said, peering down from under the brim of his hat, "doing sitting here all alone?"

"Why, waiting for a handsome man like you to come along," she answered in coy voice that would have shocked any of the students at the Institute. Ms. Logan's thick black hair was moussed and styled in an elegant bun with wisps of hair framing her face. Her brown eyes were shaded a light silvery blue and outlined in black while her heavily mascaraed eyelashes curled up in a daring display of sensuality. Her lips were painted a bright crimson that matched the polish on her well-manicured and sculpted nails. She was wearing a blue and silver sequined cocktail dress with a low cut neckline that drew just the right amount of attention to her ample breasts and underneath the table at the end of her freshly waxed legs she wore three inch spike heels.

The only thing familiar about her was that she was smoking and drinking beer. But the beer was a fancy Belgian import in a flute glass from which Ms. Logan had been taking small ladylike sips and instead of her usual cigar she had a long slim woman's cigarette that her red nail polished hands held in dainty and demure manner. With her silver earrings and fine pearl necklace she looked the very picture of feminine grace and sophistication.

Orion sat down and ordered a beer for himself. Taking off his hat, he smiled at Ms. Logon. "Did you come here straight form the salon?"

"Oh yes." Ms. Logan took a drag on her cigarette and let out a tiny puff of smoke. "I wouldn't want the kids back at the mansion to see me like this. They'd all die from the shock." Orion chuckled slightly; back at the mansion some of the kids even debated wherever she shaved her legs or not. He knew that she did-he was feeling the evidence right now-but decided not to enlighten them.

"It's a pity you don't wear that scent more often," he said, taking a whiff of Ms. Logan's perfume. "I quite like it."

Ms. Logan snorted. "Enjoy it while you can." The big reason Ms. Logan seldom wore perfume of any sort was that it could overwhelm her heightened sense of smell. As if to change the subject she added, "You really play Duke Ellington quite well. It was almost like the time I heard him play in person."

The waitress came back with Orion's beer. "You did?"

"Yes." Ms. Logan couldn't remember much past fifteen years when her memories were wiped yet she still had occasional snatches. "It was at a place like this only it was in Europe. I think. An Army base camp. And I was with a guy named Steve."

A comedic duo came out on stage, and engaged in a series of routines that revolved around ordinary mundane things such as baseball or home life or double dating at a restaurant. Most of the club patrons found them a riot and even Orion let out a few small laughs-had he laughed as hard as he wanted a tornado might very well destroy the place.

Ms. Logan only gave a small snort. "These guys are like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis trying to imitate Abbott and Costello."

"Ever see either of _them?_" Normally Orion didn't like to think about his girlfriend being old enough to be his grandmother-or possibly even his great-grandmother-but Ms. Logan's comment had roused his curiosity.

"Only in the movies." Ms. Logan let out a long breath of smoke as she nudged closer to Orion. "Or if I did, I can't remember." She sounded wistful, almost-sad.

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Ms. Logan put her hand in Orion's. For now it felt deceptively soft and un-callused due to her healing factor; "It just that being here sort of brought back the old memory." Her heavily made up eyes looked moist. "Thank you."

Orion draped his arm around her as she nuzzled in close. To most of the Institute his girlfriend was simply the tough, cigar chomping beer guzzling Ms. Logan who trained the students to fight and use their powers to survive. This side of her, where she was soft, demure and sentimental-that she rarely showed.

Yet he cherished every moment when she did.

* * *

"Seriously, Ms. Logan spent the day at a beauty parlor?" Kit couldn't believe what Yvonne just told him. Ms. Logan was the most unfeminine woman he'd ever met, and simply couldn't picture her in such a place.

"Yep," Yvonne replied. "I went with her; she said she was meeting my uncle at the Jazz-Manian Outback tonight."

"That place?" The Jazz-Manian outback was Bayville's leading nightclub. Kit had never been there but heard it was a really classy joint, not the sort of place he could easily imagine Ms. Logan at.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't really picture her there either. But I saw her after her makeover and she seemed almost like a completely different person."

Deciding to change the subject Kit asked, "What are you doing for your Current Events project?" He grinned a little since he was assigned to do a report on the string of Spider-Man sightings and the media reaction to the mysterious figure.

Yvonne grinned. "Oh boy, I've got a great one. I've been told to do a report on the Star Wars program! I've already rented the DVDs to the first trilogy; I can't wait for to start on the second even though that wasn't as good. And I've got the entire set of novels to review-,"

"I don't think that's the Stars Wars program our teacher had in mind-," Kit began but Yvonne continued, telling how she was planning to study the impact of Star Wars on popular culture and even wanted to go with Kit to a Sci-Fi convention in New York the next weekend. Kit gave up any chance of trying to tell Yvonne her assignment was more likely to be about the space missile defense system; she'd just have to learn the hard way.

Sighing, Kit headed back to his room. Instead of opening the door normally he phased through. "Haven't ya ever heard of knocking?" an annoyed southern-accented voice snarled.

"Hey, it's my room!" Kit shouted back at Rogue. He walked over and turned off the stereo. "And haven't you ever heard of headphones? I told you I can't stand Alice Cooper!" He the then glared at the cigarette in Rogue's mouth. "And you're smoking!"

"The Professor and Ms. Logan smoke and ya don't give them a hard time."

"They're adults! Besides, they don't smoke in my room!"

"Well it's my room too," Rogue sneered. "The professor did make us roommates."

"Well I've got homework to do and I don't want your music or your secondhand smoke distracting me!"

Rogue stood up and removed his glove. "They won't be distractin' ya," he said as he stepped towards Kit, "If I drain ya!" But as Rouge reached to touch Kit's forehead, his hand passed right through the smaller boy.

Kit only grinned. "Can't drain what you can't touch." Scowling, Rogue picked up his pack of cigarettes and the horror novel he'd been reading, and sullenly walked out the room.

Kit walked over to his desk, opened his laptop and sighed. What was the professor thinking, making him and Rogue roommates? Granted Kit felt bad for the southern Goth boy the way his powers isolated him from other people. But he could be just so difficult!

As Kit logged on, he noticed signs his account had been used today although this was the first time he'd log on. Had Rogue used his account to do schoolwork? If so, Kit wouldn't begrudge him although seriously he'd have to talk about Rogue getting an account of his own. But when he saw the sights Rogue had been visiting he grew enraged. Rogue had been using Kit's internet connection to look at porn!

* * *

Rogue made his way down the stairs to the library; it seemed strange that a mansion like this should have a library on the bottom floor instead of the top. Perhaps Charlene Xavier had it moved to accommodate her disability.

He found the professor sitting in one of the easy chairs, reading a book and smoking a cigarette. "Mind if I smoke in here?" he asked.

"Go right ahead," Charlene Xavier replied. While she really didn't approve of teenagers smoking Rogue already had the habit, and Charlene Xavier knew from personal experience just how hard the smoking habit was to break. She mainly smoked in private so as not to set a bad example. "I take it something is troubling you?"

"Did ya read my mind?"

Charlene ran a hand through her wig. "I can't when I'm wearing this. I have, however acquired the ability to read people's facial language as well."

"Oh." Rogue took a long drag on his cigarette, then let out a cloud of smoke. "Why'd you room me with that Pryde guy? Ya've got plenty of rooms here; couldn't ya let me have one of those?"

"I did it for two reasons Rogue." Charlene snuffed out her cigarette and looked Rogue straight in the eye. "One, I plan to have more students here eventually and we will run out of room unless we start pairing up, so I thought you and Kit would make a good start."

"What's your other reason?" Rogue asked sullenly.

"You. Rogue, I realize that it's not easy, the way your power separates you from people but you do need to socialize more. It's not healthy for you to be spending most of your time by yourself reading or listening to your music."

Rogue gave out a weary sigh, then puff on his cigarette some more. "How can Ah, I mean-," he held up his gloved hands.

"You might not need to wear those for the rest of your life," said the professor. Seeing the boy look puzzled she added, "It was years before I learned how to keep the voices out of my head and to sort out my thoughts. This helps," and she touched her wig again, "although I can and have gone for hours or sometimes days without one. It will take further analyzing of your body to determine what the cause of your powers is and find some means of controlling it. It may be possible to do this with the aid of technology, and it may even be possible that that there are some who for one reason or another, might be immune to your powers."

"I already know one," Rogue muttered. "Emmett."

"Ah, yes, the Frost boy." Charlene's mouth twitched up in a small smile. "I take it however that is not the sort of contact you desire."

"No." Rogue threw away his stub of a cigarette and lit up another one. "Even if it was, it's only when he's in that diamond form of his. Otherwise, he's as vulnerable to my power as anyone."

"I see." Now Charlene took a long look at Rogue's face. "Rogue, I understand that this is very frustrating for you. I remember what it was like to be a teenager-yes, it's different for a girl but not that different-and you must feel alone. But looking at porn sights on the Internet will not help you in any way."

"How'd you know about that?" Rogue cried out in surprise.

"You and the other students here all are minors," said the Professor, "and as you are in my charge, I have the responsibility to oversee what you are using your internet service for. And although you were using Kit's account, he has never been a frequent visitor to those websites." Seeing Rogue blush she went on, "You're not in trouble; like I said I understand what you're going through. But I am going to but a blocker on the institute's net service, so I'm must tell you won't be able to visit them again here. And I will be starting an account for yourself, so you will not be using Kit's." She took another cigarette from her pack and lit up. "And there is something else bothering you too."

Rogue took out his cigarette and let out a long stream of smoke. "It's Mysterioss. Y'see, back in the caves, Ah found out," Rouge paused and took in a deep breath. "Ah found out that Ah'm his son."

* * *

Mysterioss had the entire Brotherhood, minus Emmett and Martin, lined up against the fireplace of the living room, from Frieda down to Morgan.

"So," he said walking up and down the line of mutant teenagers, glaring into each of their eyes, "while I was away the lot of you decided to throw a party. And you allowed the guests to bring booze and drugs!"

"Hey, we got the booze ourselves," Tonya said defensively, then flinched under Mysterioss's withering gaze.

"And that makes it all right?" Mysterioss snorted sardonically. "Suppose the neighbors called the police complaining about the noise. Suppose they came and found a whole bunch of teenagers drunk and stoned. What would you do then?"

"Hey, we could have fought them off!" Lana said angrily. Mysterioss had arrived when she was in the middle of a poker game and was winning too.

"Yes-and exposed ourselves to the world. Wouldn't that have been a fine mess." It was possible that, if Mind Mistress was sent by Magnetrix she could have wiped the police's minds and rewritten their memories. But then they would have to shut down their operations in Bayville. Not only would relocating cost thousands, but it would deny Mysterioss a chance to get close to Cerebro.

"It's very plain, Mysterioss went on, "that I have been far too lenient in the past in training and organizing the sorry lot of you into a worthwhile team. Well, no more. Starting tomorrow, the lot of you are will be getting up at 4:30 in the morning to exercise and come back here after school to train in teamwork and when Martin gets back we'll be having him use his mind-imaging powers to create scenarios for you to practice in" It wouldn't be as good as that Danger Room he knew Charlene Xavier had but it would have to do for now. "Any more questions?" None of them moved. "You are dismissed."

All of them left, departing either for their rooms for somewhere else. Mysterioss didn't care where they were going; their personal lives were none of his concern.

He walked over to his den and went inside. Picking up the phone, he dialed a number and said, "Hello, Bayville Police Department. I need to file a missing person report."

* * *

Kit walked past the TV room and saw Yvonne settled down in front, with a notepad scribbling as she was watching _Star Wars: A New Hope. "_Working on your Current Events assignment?" he asked as he walked inside . Although Kit was still pretty sure this wasn't the Star Wars program their teacher had in mind he decided it would be no use tell Yvonne. She'd just have to learn the hard way.

"Yep," said Yvonne, her eyes glued to the television. "You wanna sit down and watch?"

"No thanks, Katrina and I are going to a movie and then catch a pizza," Kit said. Although it was Sunday school was going to be closed due to a special teacher's conference. "You uncle's dropping us off and picking us up."

"Oh that's right, his band's playing again at the Outback tonight." As if on cue Katrina came into the TV room followed by Orion. Now Yvonne lifted her head to see her uncle. "Wow Unc, you look sharp!"

Orion smiled, he was wearing his usual nightclub 'zoot suit' and black fedora of his white hair. "Well, I have to look good for a gig. And even more for the special lady in the audience."

"You better," and now all eyes were on Ms. Logan as she walked into the room. She was dressed in a different outfit than the night before, a strapless blue and silver evening gown with an ostrich feather boa draped over her shoulders. "To get Armando to do me two days in a row, I had to give him two boxes of my best cigars."

Orion grinned wider as he stepped over to her, and took her hand in his. "I'd say it was worth the sacrifice."

"Flatterer." Ms. Logan giggled as she planted her lips on his in a quick kiss. Kit was staring in disbelief; _this _was Ms. Logan?

As if sensing his confusion, Ms. Logan looked back at Kit. Underneath her makeup her face turned up in a familiar looking scowl; holding up her left hand three razor-sharp metal claws shot out from her knuckles. "Now you recognize me, imp?"

Kit nodded; this was the Ms. Logan he knew. Now Ms. Logan's sniggered as she re-sheathed her claws. "It's quite all right; John and Selena acted the same way the first time they saw me like this. But what'd you expect, me to show up at a classy joint like the Jazz-Manian Outback in faded jeans and flannel with a big stogie in my mouth?"

"That would make for an interesting scene," said Orion. "Perhaps maybe-,"

But Orion never got to finish his sentence. For suddenly the TV screen showed a picture of Rogue and a reporters voice said, "We interrupt this program to bring to you an urgent message. Raymond Darkholme, Principal of Bayville High school and Superintendent of the Brotherhood of Bayville home for wayward youth, has filed a missing person report for one of his charges."

Down below in the kitchen, the Professor, Selena, John, and Rogue were watching the same report. Suddenly the telephone rang. Picking it up, Charlene heard Mysterioss's voice, "I need to speak to my son."

Charlene handed Rogue the phone. "Hello Rogue."

"Whad'ya want, old man?"

"Why, for you to come home," Mysterioss replied. "Think about it boy. The police are out searching for you already. How long are you willing to hide, hoping they will give up the search? Face it boy, your only option is to come back to me."

"You bastard!" Rogue snarled as he turned off the phone.

"What was that about?" Selena asked.

"Mysterioss wants me to come back with him," Rogue, grumbled. "And I'm not gonna." He turned and walked for the stairs.

"Wait!" John called out. "Where are you going?"

"Ah'm leaving," Rogue said. He looked back and smiled sadly. "Y'all are great, but Ah can't let you get into trouble on my account."

"But," Selena said, "where will you go?"

"Who knows?" Rogue shrugged. "But I can't stay here and I'm not going back."

"Rogue," said Charlene as she wheeled her chair over to the southern boy's side, "I realize it seems hopeless right now, but I think I may have a way to resolve this."

* * *

Even in February, Mississippi was rather warm and sunny. At least however there wasn't the humidity that made the Magnolia state so unbearable most of the year.

Charlene Xavier was sitting on at a table outside a café in Caldecott. Several feet away, Selena and John were sitting at a different table.

"Charlene?" The professor looked up and saw a middle aged blind woman leaning on a white cane standing over her.

"Ah, Irene," Charlene smiled back at Irene Adler. "Please, sit down." As Irene did, Charlene asked, "Did you have one of your visions that told you exactly where I'd be?"

"No." She pointed to an ash tray that still held a smoldering cigarette. "This is where you called and asked to meet me, and I recognized your brand of cigarette."

"I really should quit," said Charlene. "It's a nasty habit."

"I know. I managed and it wasn't easy."

The two women kept making small talk for the next couple of minutes, until Destiny finally got to the heart of the matter. "I take it this is about Rogue?"

"Indeed it is," Charlene replied. "You know that he has joined me?" Irene nodded. "And you also know about the MPR Raymond has put on him.

Irene nodded sadly. "Yes, I know. He called and told me about it. He was quite angry."

"Is he truly the boy's father?"

Irene nodded again. "My vision in the matter was quite clear. There could be no other possible explanation."

"But you are his legal guardian. So you do have the legal power to allow him to join my Institute."

Irene shook her head. "I cannot betray him. You know that."

"Irene, you know that, despite their relation Raymond will only see him as a weapon to use in Magnetrix's war against humanity. I see him as a person. And I know you do too."

"Yes," said Irene. "I love Raymond-but I love Rogue too. I love him as if he was my own son."

"Yet you are willing to let Raymond use him."

"I don't want him to!" Irene's outburst was so far removed from the calm she displayed earlier. "But when I predicted the nature of his powers, I also saw that he would be the key to preventing a great calamity from falling upon our kind Charlene. I don't know how or in what way but he will."

"And can you also foresee the likely outcome of this," said Charlene as she picked up the briefcase sitting next to her wheelchair; opening it, she took out a document in Braille and handed it to Irene, "if this piece of paper ever falls into the hands of the authorities?"

As Irene's fingers ran over the raised Braille script, a new vision came to her-of herself being arrested and hauled off to prison. Of being beaten by inmates and by guards, to death, of dying just before Raymond could come to free her-and of Raymond killing himself in his grief. "How-how did you learn-,"

"That when you were a secretary at the Woodhull Academy for the blind and death you helped Mind Mistress to embezzle more than $300,000 from that school?" Charlene asked. She hated what she was doing but she had no real choice. "I have my ways Irene-and not all of them involve telepathy. However, if you agree to allow me custody of Rogue and recognize him as a student at my Institute, this document will go away. No one will learn of it, or of your involvement."

"I never wanted to be involved in any of this," said Irene. "All I want is a quiet normal life. Please, tell Rogue that. And tell him I that in spite of everything, I do love him."

"I will," said Charlene. She took Irene's hand in hers. "You can tell him yourself. Come with us to the Institute. I can find a place for you there, and you can be with him."

"No," said Irene. "It's better if I don't see him. It's also likely better if he hates me, after what I've done with him."

"He doesn't hate you," said Charlene. "He's angry with you yes. But still, you're the closest he has to an actual mother. And I can protect you, from Magnetrix and from Raymond."

"Raymond, " Irene took off her dark sunglasses, and Charlene could see despite their sightlessness there was genuine emotion behind them, "is the one person whom I do not need protection from. He has, at times, been unfaithful but he would never willingly harm me. You must trust me on this; I know him better than anyone. He may be angry with me but he will not harm me."

"I see." Charlene marveled at how blind love could be.

But there is something else you must know," Irene added. "Raymond has-another child…."

End of chapter 17

You all know who Raymond's other child is, don't you? Of course you do.

If you're wondering why I have Charlene smoking cigarettes-well in the early X-Men comics Charles Xavier is frequently shown smoking a pipe-a common stereotype for academics at the time. Since pipe smoking is considered unladylike, I decided cigarettes would be more appropriate for Charlene.

The next chapter will be based mainly on 'Spykecam,' however it will focus mainly on Orion, Ms. Logan and their respective pasts. How do you think their histories were similar to those of the Ororo and Logan we know, how did being opposite genders make them different, and shape them into the people they are now? And When Shago sees Sabretooth attacking his girlfriend, how much hurt is Creed in for?


End file.
